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LIBRARY 

Itfihcological  ^eminanu 

Weiss,  John,  1818-1879 
American  religion 


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HOUGHTS 


A 


BOUT 


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By  PHILIP  GILBERT   HAMERTON, 

Author  of  ^'^  A  Painter's  Camp." 

First  American  Edition.     Revised  by  the  Author. 
One  Vol.     i6mo.    400  pages.    Price  $2.00. 


CONTENTS. 


1 .  That  Certain  Artists  should  write 

on  Art. 

2.  Painting  from  Nature. 

3.  Painting  from  Memoranda. 

4.  The  Place  of  Landscape  Painting 

amongst  the  Fine  Arts. 

5.  The    Relation    between   Photog- 

raphy and  Painting. 

6.  Wood  Painting  and  Color  Paint- 

ing. 

7.  Transcendentalism  in  Painting. 

8.  The  Law  of  Progress  in  Art. 

9.  Analysis  and  Synthesis  in  Paint- 

ing. 


10.  The  Reaction  from  Pre-Raphael- 

itism. 

11.  The  Painter  in  His  Relation  to 

Society. 

12.  Picture  Buying. 

13.  The  Housing  of  National  Art 

Treasures. 

Fame. 

Art  Criticism. 

Proudhon  as  a  Writer  on  Art. 

Two  Art  Philosophers. 

Furniture. 

The  Artistic  Spirit. 


14. 

15- 

16. 

17- 
18. 


19 


Since  the  publication  of  that  charming  volume,  "  A  Painter's 
Camp,"  Mr.  Hamerton  has  published  "The  Unknown  River: 
An  Etcher's  Voyage  of  Discovery,"  with  thirty-seven  illustra- 
tions, etched  from  nature,  by  the  author.  The  Unknown  River 
was  the  Arroux,  a  tributary  of  the  Loire,  and  the  voyage  was 
performed  in  a  boat  built  by  the  author,  with  his  dog  Tom  for 
his  only  companion;  and  the  illustrations  were  etched  from  na- 
ture on  the  way.  Nothing  can  be  more  delightful  than  this 
volume ;  it  is  a  marvel  of  artistic  interest. 

"Thoughts  about  Art"  will  be  mailed,  postpaid,  to  any  ad- 
dress, on  receipt  of  the  advertised  price,  by  the  publishers, 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS,  Boston. 


GEORGE  SAND'S  NOVELS. 


I.     MAUPRAT.     Translated  by  Virginia  Vaughav. 
11.    ANTONIA.     Translated  by  Virginia  Vaughan. 

III.  MONSIEUR    SYLVESTRE.       Translated    by    Fbancis 

George  Shaw. 

IV.  THE  :MAN  of  snow.   Translated  by  Virginia  Vaughan. 
V.    THE  MILLER  OF  ANGIBAULT.    Translated  by  Miss 

Mary  E,  Dewey. 

A  standard  Library  Edition,  uniformly  bound,  in  neat  16mo  volumes.    Each 
volume  sold  separately.     Price  $1.50. 


SOME    I\OTICES    OF    '' MAUPRAT." 

*'  An  admirable  translation.  As  to  '  Mauprat,'  with  which  novel  Roberts 
Brothers  introduce  the  first  of  French  novelists  to  the  American  public,  if  there 
were  any  doubts  as  to  George  Sand's  power,  it  would  for  ever  set  them  at  rest. 
.  .  .  The  object  of  the  story  is  to  show  how,  by  her  (Edmees)  noble  nature,  he 
(Mauprat)  is  subsequently  transformed  from  a  brute  to  a  man  ;  his  sensual  pas- 
Kion  to  a  pure  and  holy  love."  —  Harper's  Monthly. 

"  The  excellence  of  George  Sand,  as  we  understand  it,  lies  in  her  comprehen- 
5  jn  of  the  primitive  elements  of  mankind.  She  has  conquered  her  way  into  the 
human  heart,  and  whether  it  is  at  peace  or  at  war,  is  the  same  to  her ;  for  she  is 
mistress  of  all  its  moods.  No  woman  befrjre  ever  painted  the  passions  and  the 
emotions  with  such  force  and  fidelitv,  and  with  such  consummate  art.  Whatever 
else  she  may  be.  she  is  always  an  urtist.  .  .  .  Love  is  the  key-note  of  '  Mauprat,' 
—  love,  and  what  it  can  accomplish  in  taming  an  otherwi.'^e  untamable  spii-it. 
The  hero,  Bernard  Mauprat,  grows  up  with  his  uncles,  who  are  practically  ban- 
dits, as  was  not  uncommon  with  men  of  their  class,  in  the  provinces,  before  the 
breaking  out  of  the  French  Revulution.  He  is  a  young  savage,  of  whom  the  best 
tliat  can  be  said  is,  that  he  is  only  less  wicked  than  his  relatives,  because  he  has 
somewhere  within  him  a  sense  of  generosity  and  honor,  to  which  they  are  entire 
strangers.  To  sting  this  sense  into  activity,  to  detect  the  makings  of  a  man  in  this 
brute,  to  make  this  brute  into  a  man,  is  the  difficult  problem,  which  is  worked 
out  by  love,  —  the  love  of  Bernard  for  his  cousin  Ed-iieC;  and  hers  for  him,  —  the 
love  of  two  strong,  pa.ssionate,  noble  natures,  locked  in  a  life-and-death  struggle, 
in  which  the  man  is  finally  overcome  b}-  the  unconquerable  strength  of  woman- 
hood. Only  a  great  writer  could  have  described  sucli  a  struggle,  and  only  a  great 
arti.st  could  have  kept  it  within  allowable  limits.  This  George  Sand  has  done.  w« 
think  ;  for  her  portrait  of  Bernard  is  vigorous  without  being  coarse,  and  her  situ 
ations  are  .strong  without  being  dangeroiis.  Such,  at  least,  is  the  impression  we 
have  received  from  reading  '  Mauprat."  which,  besides  being  an  admirable  study 
of  cliavaeter.  is  also  a  fine  picture  of  French  provincial  life  and  manners."  —  Fut- 
nani's  Monlhli/. 

"  I'.oberts  Hnthers  propose  to  publish  a  series  of  translations  of  George 
Sand's  better  novels.  We  can  hardly  say  that  all  are  worth  appearing  In  English  ; 
but  it  is  certain  that  the  '  better '  list  will  comprise  a  good  many  which  are  worth 
translating,  and  among  these  is  '  JIauprat,'  —  though  by  no  means  the  best  of 
them.  Written  to  show  the  possibility  of  constancy  in  man,  a  love  iLspired  be- 
fore and  continuing  through  marriage,  it  is  itself  a  contradiction  to  a  good  many 
of  the  populai  notions  respecting  tlie  author,  —  who  is  generally  supposed  to  be 
as  indilferent  to  the  sanctities  of  the  marriage  relation  as  was  her  celebrated  an- 
cestor, Augustus  of  Saxony.  .  .  .  The  translation  is  admirable.  It  i'*  seldom  that 
one  reads  sucii  good  English  in  a  work  translated  from  any  language.  The  new 
fieries  is  inaugurated  in  the  best  possible  way,  under  the  hands  of  Miss  Vaughan 
and  wf  trust  that  she  may  have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  its  continuance.  It 
b  not  every  one  who  can  read  French  who  can  write  Enghsh  so  well." — (^Id 
and  New 


Sold  everywhere      Mailed,  postpaid,  on  receipt  of  the  advertised  price, 
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ROBERTS   BROTHERS.  Boston. 


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A    PAINTER'S    CAMP. 

BY   PHTT.TP   GILBERT   HAMERTON. 

In  Three  Books.     Book  I.,  In  England ;  Book  II.,  In  Scotland ; 
Book  III.,  In  France.     1  vol.  IGino.    Price  $1.50. 


From  The  Atlantic  Monthly. 

"  They  ('  A  Painter's  Camp  in  the  Highlands,'  and  '  Thoughts  about  Art ')  are 
the  most  useful  books  that  could  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  American  ArS 
public.  If  we  were  asked  where  the  most  intelligent,  the  most  trustworthy,  the 
most  practical,  and  the  most  interesting  exposition  of  Modern  Art  and  cognate 
subjects  is  to  be  found,  we  should  point  to  Hamerton's  writings." 

From  The  Round  Table. 

"  Considered  merely  in  its  literary  aspect,  we  know  of  no  pleasanter  book  than 
this  for  summer  reading.  Artistically,  we  consider  it  a  most  valuable  addition 
to  rur  literature." 

From,  The  New  York  Tribune, 

"In  the  pursuit  of  his  profession  as  a  landscape-painter,  the  author  has  not 
hesitated  to  plunge  into  the  remote  and  unattractive  nooks  and  corners  of  nature, 
gathering  a  rich  store  of  materials  for  his  pencil,  and  describing  his  whimsical 
experiences  with  a  gayety  and  unctiou  in  perfect  keeping  with  ttie  subject.  Ilia 
account  of  the  practical  methods  by  which  he  conquered  the  difficulties  of  the 
position  is  instructive  in  the  extreme,  while  the  anecdotes  and  adventures  which 
he  relates  with  such  exuberant  fun  make  his  book  one  of  the  most  entertaiuing 
of  the  season." 

From  The  Philadelphia  Evening  Telegraph. 

"  We  are  not  addicted  to  enthusiasm,  but  the  httle  work  before  us  is  really  so 
full  of  good  points  that  we  grow  so  admiring  as  to  appear  almost  fulsome  in  its 
praise.  .  .  It  has  been  many  a  day  since  we  have  been  called  upon  to  review  a 
work  which  gave  us  such  real  pleasure." 

From.  The  Boston  Transcript. 

"  The  volume  is  divided  into  three  books,  recording  the  writer's  experience 
respectively  in  England,  Scotland,  and  France.  The  volume  is  interesting,  not 
merely  for  the  amount  of  suggestive  thought  and  fresh  observation  it  contains 
bearing  on  the  author's  own  profession,  but  for  its  sketches  of  character  and 
scenery,  and  its  shrewd  and  keen  remarks  on  topics  disconnected  with  Art.  There 
are  very  few  chapters  of  foreign  travel,  for  instance,  which  are  so  admirable  in 
every  respect  as  Mr.  Hamerton's  article  on  '  A  Little  French  City  ;* '  and  the  gen- 
eral opinions  on  Art  given  in  the  '  Epilogue '  are  worthy  the  attention  of  all 
painters,  especially  of  the  champions  of  extreme  schools.  We  have  never  seen 
any  of  Mr.  Hamerton's  pictures ;  but  if  he  paints  as  delightfully  as  he  writes,  he 
must  be  an  artist  of  more  than  common  skill." 


Sold  by  all  Booksellers.    Mailed^  postpaid.,  on  receipt  of  price  by  the 
Publishei's, 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS, 

Boston. 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


BY 


JOHN    WEISS. 


BOSTON: 
ROBERTS     BROTHERS. 

1871. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1871,  by 

JOHN  WEISS, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


CAMBRIDGE  : 
PRESS  OF  JOHN   WILSON   AND   SON. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I.  Right  Mental  Method i 

II.  America's  Debt 32 

III.  The  American  Opportunity 56 

IV.  The  Divine  Immanence 86 

V.  Law  of  the  Divine  Immanence     ....  109 

VI.  A  Divine  Person 139 

VI  I.  An  American  Atonement 166 

VIII.  False  and  True  Praying 191 

IX.  Strife  and  Symmetry 220 

X.  A  Conscience  for  Truth 244 

XI.  Constancy  to  an  Ideal 270 

XII.  The  American  Soldier 297 


AMERICAN     RELIGION. 


I. 

RIGHT   MENTAL   METHOD. 

SOME  mental  method  must  exist  to  control  all  the 
applications  of  Thought  in  morals  and  religion. 
Of  course  it  is  trite  to  say  there  must  be  method 
everyvvrhere.  The  Oneida  Community  ran  to  waste 
year  after  year  for  want  of  method  in  its  trade  and 
farming,  till  a  French  Canadian  came  there  with  a 
mouse-trap  of  his  invention,  and  caught  prosperity. 
No  trap  had  ever  before  so  nicely  corresponded  to  the 
cunning  of  surplus  mice.  Method  is  simply  an  adap- 
tation to  the  facts.  The  sculptor  discovers  what  form 
of  tool  will  hollow  a  knee-joint,  and  he  saves  time  for 
the  face.  Philosophers  and  theologians  grow  stiff  in 
that  joint  because  they  refuse  to  walk  in  Nature's  way. 
But  the  great  discoveries  of  Newton  and  Kepler  had 
nothing  mysterious :  they  were  the  gestures  of  men 
without  preconceptions  to  methodize,  whose  ways 
were  so  near  to  Nature  that  they  kept  the  rare  brains 
susceptible  to  organic  laws ;  so  that  their  genius  was 
their  health. 

Method  rules  the   distinction  between  the  literary 
man  and  the  Bohemian,  the  scholar  and  the  charlatan. 


2  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

Mere  mental  and  emotional  ability  works  extrava- 
gantly, and  falls  poor  at  last,  perhaps  quite  suddenly, 
unless  it  has  the  grace  to  ally  itself  with  certain  old- 
necessities  of  the  universe,  either  as  horse  in  the  traces 
or  driver  upon  the  seat.  A  great  deal  of  American 
literary  and  religious  striving  runs  to  sentimentalism 
because  the  fatigue  of  discovering  the  order  of  the 
world  is  found  to  be  too  great. 

There  can  be  but  one  mental  method,  and  that  is 
when  intelligence  discerns  and  repeats  the  way  in 
which  natural  and  spiritual  things  develop.  The  idea 
of  unity  presides  over  this :  an  idea  which  starts  in 
our  own  personal  oneness ;  the  organic  integrity  that 
precedes  good  and  bad,  right  and  wrong,  all  dualism 
and  dispute.  The  first  assurance  which  this  idea  gives 
the  mind,  or  struggles,  amid  the  horde  of  theologies 
and  preconceptions  to  give  it,  is,  that  all  things  have 
the  consistency  of  being  developed  in  one  way.  Has 
this  idea  come  into  our  consciousness  as  a  deduction 
from  a  long  series  of  experimental  observations,  a 
century-plant  composted  by  all  the  soils,  and  tended 
by  all  the  races  of  mankind,  or  is  it  the  original  form 
of  the  mind  that  is  kept  constantly  stirring  by  observa- 
tion, lest  an  overdose  of  mythologizing  should  prove 
fatal?  If  we  say  it  is  only  a  late  result  of  a  long 
series  of  observations,  carried  on  by  different  races  of 
men,  and  transmitted  in  imperfect  stages  of  deduction 
to  the  present,  we  do  not  account  for  the  first  step 
which  the  mind  made  towards  the  idea.  However 
bunglingly  made,  the  impulse  to  make  it  must  have 
previously  resided  in  the  mind.  Some  character  of 
the  mental  constitution  must  have  decided  that  relation 


RIGHT    MENTAL    METHOD.  3 

towards  the  observation  of  facts  which  we  perceive  to 
result  in  a  law  of  unity.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  say 
that  it  was  at  the  earliest  period  innate  in  the  mind  — 
meaning  that  mind  could  not  be  born  without  having 
it  expressed,  not  merely  implied,  in  its  structure  —  we 
cannot  account  for  observation,  nor  explain  the  imper- 
fect attempts  it  made  on  the  road  to  the  idea.  If  an 
idea  be  innate,  it  must  preside  over  the  whole  process 
of  experimental  knowledge,  prevent  early  misunder- 
standings, and  impress  every  stage  of  observation  with 
its  own  sense  of  the  true  method  of  the  universe.  It 
is  plain,  then,  that  two  things  run  parallel  with  each 
other,  and  are  capable  of  touching  for  mutual  inter- 
action :  the  universe  and  the  mental  structure  ;  and  the 
observing  faculty  moves  in  the  company  of  an  explain- 
ing faculty,  which  is  a  developing  tendency,  and  not 
an  innate  idea.  There  was  a  time  when  all  facts  lay 
latent  in  the  universe,  and  all  co-ordinating  instincts 
lay  latent  in  the  mind.  But  the  first  material  fact 
found  a  mental  comrade,  whose  hand  groped  after  it, 
and  both  began  to  feel  their  way  together  towards  a 
principle  of  unity. 

The  idea  of  unity  was  once  an  inchoate  form,  laid 
helplessly  upon  the  breast  of  the  divine  order :  a 
capacity  to  imbibe,  assimilate,  reduce  to  function  and 
organ,  the  teeming  facts ;  not  innate,  but  inchoate, 
and  not  even  now  hardened  into  manhood  nor  proceed- 
ing through  all  persons  ;  but  it  has  preserved,  amid  its 
fumbling  and  complaining,  the  power  to  drain  the 
great  Order  into  all  its  veins.  It  came  from  beneath 
the  bosom  at  which  it  suckles,  and  the  circuit  is 
complete. 


4  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

What  is  meant  by  saying  that  all  things  have  the 
consistency  of  being  developed  in  one  way?  It  means 
that  all  effects  flow  out  of  all  causes  in  unbroken  con- 
tinuity of  direction,  thought  and  purpose  ;  that  the 
forethought  of  the  Creative  Mind,  present  at  every  point 
of  space  in  every  moment  of  time,  brings  succession 
of  all  phenomena  without  a  break,  without  a  spasm, 
without  an  after-thought  or  an  interpolation  ;  that  the 
divine  ability  eternally  possessed  this  intention  of  grad- 
ualism and  unbroken  uniformity,  both  in  matter  and 
mind  ;  that  the  words  ge?iera^  species^  strata^  epochs^ 
transitions^  races ^  and  systejiis^  otily  express  our 
mental  recognition  of  characters,  but  do  not  confirm 
the  existence  of  breaks,  faults,  renewals  or  interposi- 
tions ;  that  in  all  cases  the  agencies  which  are  found 
to  be  uniformly  at  work  are  those  which  preclude  the 
idea  of  exceptional  ones  ;  and  that  the  idea  of  excep- 
tional forces  or  periods  belongs  to  a  state  of  mind  whose 
unity  is  not  thoroughly  set  free.  According  as  a  man 
knows  himself  he  knows  the  nature  of  the  Cosmos. 
The  more  he  knows  himself  the  more  obedient  he 
becomes  to  a  consciousness  that  the  famous  axiom  of 
Hippocrates,  "'0  Noiiog  ndvxa  x^ceryyet,"  Law  govei'ns 
all  thi7igs^  must  become  the  basis  of  his  thought. 

There  have  been  developing  ^^eriods  of  intelligence, 
during  which  the  feeling  of  Law  is  feebler  than  the 
idea  of  caprice.  All  the  natural  elements  favor  at  first 
a  sentiment  that  phenomena  occur  by  spasms,  irrup- 
tions, determinations  of  personal  agency.  Persons 
themselves  work  in  this  intermittent  way,  and  they 
impute  it  to  Nature  for  ages,  during  which  mythology 
is    born.     All    mythologies   are    merely   the   emphasis 


RIGHT    MENTAL    METHOD.  5 

which  the  want  of  intelligence  puts  upon  facts  and 
appearances  :  they  are  lifted  and  quiver  in  a  mirage 
of  heated  fancy.  But  the  crude  intelligence  has  noth- 
ing else  to  start  from  ;  and  it  begins  in  this  way  to 
develop  itself  with  a  simple  and  uninstructed  percep- 
tion that  there  are  some  very  wonderful  elements  of 
nature  and  mind. 

Now,  although  at  first  all  method  was  mythological, 
yet  the  most  scientific  period  of  a  race  or  of  the  world 
may  still  have  its  mythology,  because  all  minds  do  not 
develop  abreast  of  each  other  into  the  form  of  unity. 
The  most  religious  people  may  be  the  most  infested 
with  the  sentiment  that  God  sometimes  inserts  paren- 
theses into  creation,  because  religion,  in  its  limited 
sense,  is  only  a  tendency  to  acknowledge  that  there 
must 'be  something  invisible  to  man  and  superior  to 
his  knowledge.  Religion  in  its  widest  sense  is  the 
same  as  mental  unity,  and  it  invests  the  invisible  with 
its  own  overpowering  consciousness  that  the  invisible 
is  a  continuity  of  Law. 

Mythology  blossoms  and  exhales.  Its  pungent  aro- 
ma is  what  men  call  the  Supernatural.  With  a  root 
in  the  ground,  and  leaves  that  imbibe  the  simple  ele- 
ments of  nature,  the  moment  it  comes  to  perfume 
men  pronounce  it  the  true  Invisible.  But  it  is  still 
only  matter  in  a  tenuous  form. 

How  shall  we  distinguish?  We  cannot  call  every 
thing  Nature,  or  every  thing  Siipernature.  In  the 
former  we  do  not  recognize  the  making  of  Nature  :  in 
the  latter  we  lose  the  order  of  the  things  that  are 
made.  There  must  always  be  the  Natural  because 
there  is  always  the  Supernatural.     But  our  own  men- 


n  AMERICAN    RELIGION; 

tal  form  of  unity  reveals  to  us  the  nature  of  the  Super- 
natural, whether  we  believe  that  this  mental  form  is 
the  net  result  of  all  human  experience,  or  that  it  is  a 
primitive  constituent  of  mind.  There  can  be  no 
quarrel  here,  nor  can  there  be  any  obscurity  in  defin- 
ing the  Supernatural,  since  the  idea  of  unity  which  is 
actual  at  the  end  of  one  process  is  latent  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  other.  What  is  chiefly  important  to  note 
is  that  when  Nature  is  best  understood — and  that  is 
when  Mind  is  most  perfectly  developed  —  the  Super- 
natural appears  as  the  ground  and  efficient  cause  of 
uniformity,  gradual  successiveness,  perpetual  invaria- 
bility ;  and  irruptions  from  the  invisible  are  crowded 
out  by  the  sustenance  of  Law. 

This  has  a  reflex  effect  upon  the  past.  Our  growing 
conviction  that  Law  sustains  every  thing,  and  liolds 
a  lineal,  undislocated  course  through  all  provinces, 
interprets  the  past,  and,  in  doing  so,  eliminates  every 
trace  of  its  mythologies.  Nothing  is  left  of  mankind's 
views  upon  the  Supernatural,  unless  the  idea  of  natural 
sequence  has  been  mixed  up  with  them.  Nothing  is 
left,  except  a  religious  sense  that  there  is  something 
invisible.  But  one  of  the  most  important  branches  of 
Comparative  Religion  is  that  which  we  may  call  Essen- 
tial Mythology,  or  the  real,  natural,  moral,  and  spirit- 
ual ideas,  which,  in  their  struggle  towards  the  light  of 
unity,  figured  in  the  myths  and  legends  of  the  past. 
The  object  of  Essential  Mythology  is  to  show  how 
logically  the  Divine  assumed  these  phases  in  the  human 
mind ;  this  relative  incompleteness,  these  tentative 
eflbrts,  like  the  succession  of  animals,  from  things  that 
creep  to  things  that  fly ;  this  congruity  and  command- 


RIGHT   MENTAL   METHOD.  7 

ing  forethought,  always  sufEcient  to  itself,  that  takes 
the  shortest  line  between  two  points,  and  never  breaks 
it  when  expected  by  ignorance,  or  desired  by  passion, 
or  pretended  by  mai'vellousness.  A  true  science  of 
mythology  will  pronounce  marvellousness  the  forlorn 
resort  of  a  mind  not  yet  equipped  with  unity.  When 
Hippocrates  said  that  there  was  no  divine  disease,*  he 
gave  the  first  distinct  contribution  towards  the  scientific 
theory  of  development,  which  shows  saucer-eyed  fancy 
that  the  naturalness  of  every  thing  is  its  divinity,  and 
that  the  invisible  never  plays  tricks  with  its  own  eter- 
nal sequence,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  stake,  life 
or  death,  or  the  spiritual  health  of  human  souls.  Any 
thing  that  is  truly  desirable  is  already  profoundly 
supernatural,  because  it  flows  out  of  its  own  essence, 
or  springs  from  its  own  seed. 

The  supernaturalists,  who  believe  in  miracles  and 
the  exceptional  nature  of  Christ,  cling  to  that  theory 
of  development  which  asserts  a  special  intervention 
of  the  Creator  at  the  commencement  of  fresh  forms 
of  animal  life  in  those  epochs  known  to  Geology. 
This  theory  does  not  despise  a  logical  order,  but  finds 
it  in  the  thought  upon  which  these  forms  are  strung, 
and  not  in  the  gradual  derivation  of  them  by  any 
principle  of  selection,  or  primitive  tendency,  or  strug- 
gle for  existence,  from  the  forms  just  preceding.  The 
supernaturalists  prefer  the  theory  of  the  intervention- 

*  This  Greek  superstition,  which  Hippocrates  first  dis- 
credited, was  that  the  different  kinds  of  insanity  represented 
possession  by  different  deities.  Something  in  the  style  of  the 
insane  person  was  analogous  to  the  characteristic  of  the  god, 
and  consequently  was  referred  to  him  as  its  source. 


5  AMERICAN  RELIGION. 

ists  to  that  of  the  gradualists,  not  so  much  because 
the  latter  would  derive  inan  from  some  chimpan- 
zee, as  because  the  former  break  up  creation  into  suc- 
cessive epochs,  with  a  supernatural  irruption  at  the 
head  of  each.  This  gives  a  color  to  their  theology  of 
inten^ention ;  and  Christ  appears,  not  as  a  gradual 
blossom  on  the  stem  of  human  nature,  but  a  new  crea- 
tion, and  the  first  member  of  a  new  series.  Then  it  is 
not  difficult  to  suppose  that  the  miracles  came  in  with 
the  miraculous  conception  of  the  new  man.  If  the 
first  man  was  built  afresh  and  not  slowly  evolved  from 
any  thing,  did  such  supernatural  events  cease  then,  or 
have  there  been  subsequent  incursions  from  a  higher 
sphere,  to  add  new  forms  of  spiritual  life  to  human 
society  ? 

Now  the  theory  of  intervention,  which  theology  is 
lately  disposed  to  press  into  its  service,  cannot  be 
applied  to  the  mental  and  spiritual  growth  of  mankind. 
It  may  or  may  not  be  true  through  all  the  geological 
eras,  and  Darwinism  may  be  shown  to  be  a  scheme 
without  a  constituency,  by  the  facts  serving  more  and 
more  the  theory  of  a  sequence  of  thought  with  spasms* 

*  Mr.  Huxley,  who  is  a  gradualist,  does  not  think  it  is  es- 
sential to  deny  that  nature  sometimes  passes,  by  a  leap,  to  her 
fresh  varieties,  since  the  leap  itself  marks  onlj  the  method 
of  the  force  that  gathers  to  it,  and  not  a  divine  impromptu, 
or  thrusting  in.  He  says :  "  We  have  always  thought  that 
Mr.  Darwin  has  unnecessarily  hampered  himself  by  adhering 
so  strictly  to  his  favorite  '■  Natiira  non  facit  saltum^  We 
greatly  suspect  that  she  does  make  considerable  jumps  in  the 
way  of  variation,  now  and  then,  and  that  these  saltations 
give  rise  to  some  of  the  gaps  which  appear  to  exist  in  the 
series  of  known  forms." 


RIGHT    MENTAL    METHOD.  9 

in  the  application.  But  this  is  beyond  our  province  :  we 
confine  ourselves  to  seeing  that,  since  the  creation  of 
man,  Comparative  Religion  does  not  furnish  one  fact 
to  justify  the  idea  of  mental  development  by  special 
intervention.  Every  race  shows  gradualism  in  all  the 
provinces  of  its  intelligence,  a  passage  of  embryotic 
thought  through  all  its  phases,  v/ithout  a  single  break 
or  interpolation  for  which  natural  causes  are  not  suffi- 
cient to  account.  The  Divinity  within  the  natural 
causes  has  assumed  gradualism  for  its  method.  Every 
kind  of  truth  has  spread  by  the  gradual  contact  of 
colonization,  emigration,  or  conquest,  from  one  race 
to  another.  Upon  every  i"peridian  the  same  embryotic 
ideas  of  morals  and  religion  are  found,  which  develop 
with  variations  due  to  local  influences  alone.  All 
religious  souls  and  leaders  have  been  substantially 
alike  in  the  raw  material  of  their  thought.  In  East 
and  West,  in  India,  Judea  and  Greece,  all  of  the  sages 
and  prophets  have  shared  each  others'  essentials :  be- 
neath the  hue  of  all  their  cheeks  the  composition  of  the 
blushino;  blood  has  been  identical.  The  inchoate 
mind  of  the  race  has  brought  a  correspondence  to  life 
and  nature,  and  kept  it  everywhere  and  transmitted  it. 
So  that  intervention,  if  it  ever  was  the  preadamitic 
plan,  has  been  since  changed  to  immanence  :  the  even, 
perpetual,  unbroken,  unhasting,  unresting  Presence. 
Comparative  Mythology  and  Religion  find  no  super- 
natural distinction  between  the  order  and  texture  of 
the  ideas  of  all  the  great  teachers.  Confucius  develops 
towards  disinterested  morality  and  monotheism,  in  other 
words,  towards  mental  unity ;  and  so  do  Zoroaster, 
Pythagoras,  Socrates,  Plato,  Christ.     The  ethnological 


lO  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

distinctions  do  not  break  the  type,  nor  clamor  for  the 
supernatural.  We  find  inequalities  of  growth,  a  sur- 
plus of  one  thought  here,  of  another  there,  a  variety 
of  combinations  ;  but  no  point  where  there  is  an  inter- 
polation of  an  impulse  or  principle  which  the  general 
soul  might  not  have  always  been  credited  with  in  vari- 
ous embryotic  stages.  We  find  amplification,  and  the 
correction  that  is  the  result  of  an  increase  of  intelli- 
gence, differences  in  degree  but  not  in  kind  :  neither 
in  a  man,  nor  in  a  race,  nor  an  epoch,  can  you  find  a 
break  in  the  linear  development,  and  in  the  transmissi- 
bility,  by  the  total  of  births  on  the  planet,  of  all  the 
essential  substances  of  morals  and  religion.  Shak- 
speare  and  Beethoven  are  rooted  in  the  general  imag- 
ination which  they  overshadow,  and  upon  which  they 
shower  blossom  and  fruit.  So  do  Socrates  and  Christ 
confirm  the  logic  of  the  inchoate  mind. 

The  history  of  thought  or  of  religion  is  that  of  a 
great  crescendo  movement,  that  takes  up  the  feebler 
chords  and  pronounces  them  more  strongly  as  it  pro- 
ceeds, drops  out  the  partial  chords  or  overcomes  them 
by  the  outbursting  unity,  and  accentuates  the  great 
theme  by  developing  and  not  by  thrusting  in.  The 
composer  has  his  whole  orchestra  upon  the  spot ;  he 
neither  invents  nor  interpolates  an  instrument,  but 
wakes  them  to  all  combinations.  If  he  gives  a  few 
bars  rest  to  the  reeds  or  the  brass,  the  motive  of  the 
piece  proceeds,  and  is  just  as  immanent  in  a  pause  as 
in  a  climax.  In  the  gradual  growth  of  thought,  we 
find  that  the  first  faint  tendency  to  account  for  all 
things  in  some  way,  by  connecting  them  with  a  myth- 
ical personage,  or  with  moisture,  with  fire,  with  num- 


RIGHT  MENTAL  METHOD.  II 

bers,  with  a  First  Cause,  has  been  the  self-sufficing 
seed  of  the  rational  niethod  of  modern  science.  The 
anticipations  of  the  foremost  minds  have  been  early 
blossoms  from  it ;  lucky  divinings  and  intuitions  were 
not  intruded  but  evolved.  The  divine  immanence  has 
not  been  impatient  at  working  in  this  way.  Pythag- 
oras differs  from  Thales  by  his  position  in  time  and 
history,  and  his  superiorit}-  is  that  of  subsequence. 
In  the  province  of  Religion,  we  detect  a  faint  sense 
of  the  divine  Fatherhood,  long  before  Judea  becomes 
fragrant  with  filial  confidence.  When  we  are  aston- 
ished in  spring  to  see  a  western  prairie  one  rolling 
fire  of  flowers,  we  do  not  think  of  an  irruption  but  of 
an  evolution.  And  when  the  pine  forest  burns  down, 
and  oaks  succeed,  we  are  reminded  of  the  natural 
latency  of  the  germs  in  all  the  successions  of  mankind. 
The  only  supernatural  condition  is  that  of  perpetual 
indwelling  when  Christ  comes  after  Socrates. 

No  doubt  there  are  periods  in  human  histor\^  when 
the  divine  proceeding  lifts  itself  in  great  enthusiasm, 
and  some  man  or  movement,  collecting  it  into  mem- 
orable expression,  gives  it  a  name  that  sun^ives,  to 
mark  the  highest  point  of  thought  or  morals.  The 
supernaturalist  claims  that  such  periods  have  some- 
thing exceptional  in  them.  I  have  heard  them  called 
nodes,  and  compared  to  the  swelling  of  the  smooth 
cane-plant  into  the  joints  that  support  its  whole  devel- 
opment ;  but  we  must  not  forget  that  the  joints  are 
only  gatherings  of  the  elements  already  in  the  stem  : 
tlie  silex  is  not  different,  the  carbon  is  the  same.  No 
intrusion  has  brought  into  the  composition  of  the  joint 
a  quality  which  the  stem  is  not  competent  to  furnish. 


12  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

Or  we  may  compare  these  moments  of  the  creative 
power  to  the  high  tides  that  wet  all  the  coast-lines 
and  leave  behind,  as  they  ebb,  the  sea-wrack  to  delin- 
eate the  extreme  they  reached.  Men  visit  the  fresh 
heaps  to  collect  tokens  of  the '  distance  whence  the 
wave  arrived.  But  we  must  be  careful  to  explain 
that  the  tide  which  rises  and  then  ebbs  wets  every 
square  inch  of  its  movement  with  identical  elements  : 
its  highest  point  is  not  reached  by  means  of  the  intru- 
sion of  a  new  constituent,  and  the  force  that  lifts  it  is 
also  at  every  point  the  same.  The  natural  advantages 
of  the  inchoate  mind  of  mankind  have  simply  been  ex- 
panded, but  they  have  not  been  altered  by  the  insertion 
of  any  elements ;  so  that  you  cannot  expect  such 
periods  to  be  illustrated  by  any  modification  of  natural 
laws  :  the  functions  of  life  and  death  remain  untam- 
pered  with  ;  no  more  men  are  raised  from  the  dead 
than  before ;  no  preternatural  signs  can  emphasize 
what  is  intrinsically  emphatic,  or  lend  it  any  recom- 
mendation. The  general  mind,  through  which  the 
tide  came  sweeping,  will  sooner  or  later  recognize 
itself  with  wonder  and  gratitude,  and  find  that  not  a 
law  of  nature  has  been  meddled  with.  .  Stories  will 
cluster  around  remarkable  men  and  moments,  as 
they  do  around  remarkable  features  of  a  landscape. 
The  savage  will  have  his  tradition  about  some  natural 
gathering  of  forces  in  geological  displacements ;  in 
the  growlh  and  endurance  of  mighty  trees ;  in  the 
encroachment  of  the  ocean  upon  old  districts  that 
were  peopled ;  in  the  benefits  that  ancestors  derived 
from  the  sagacity  of  some  stranger  who  represented 
their  own  qualities  enlarged.     When  he  is  gone  they 


RIGHT    MENTAL   METHOD.  13 

celebrate  the  high  tide  to  which  they  came  in  him. 
This  is  only  because  the  scientific  method  was  not  yet 
awake  to  refer  phenomena  of  matter  or  mind  to  their 
own  invariable  constituents.  The  savage  constructs  a 
story  as  huge  and  nebulous  as  the  impression  which 
the  eclipse  or  the  subterranean  shudder  makes  upon 
his  imagination.  A  great  man  is  a  signal  for  an  unme- 
thodical generation  to  have  an  attack  of  mythology. 
It  falls  to  marvelling  where  the  man  of  science,  who 
explores  all  structures  with  the  tool  of  mental  unit}'', 
is  content  to  wonder  and  adore.  We  must  be  care- 
ful not  to  infer  from  the  past  effects  of  marvellous- 
ness  the  possibility  of  miracle.  And  w^e  need  not 
import  into  the  period  that  excites  the  marvel,  any 
more  than  into  the  joint  of  the  cane-plant,  a  quality 
that  did  not  build  the  average  from  which  the  period 
rose. 

When  the  great  men  appear,  perhaps  upon  some 
lowly  stock,  to  spread  a  sudden  blossom  whose  report 
fills  all  the  world,  and  liberates  a  fragrance  that  is  not 
exclusive  but  welcome  and  suitable  to  all  mankind, 
at  first  we  marvel,  and  the  disposition  is  to  ask,  "  Who 
can  trace  these  miraculous  conceptions?  "  But  we  do 
not  wish  to  trace  a  Shakspeare  farther  than  to  discover 
that  the  divine  climax  of  his  imagination  was  slowly 
gathered  out  of  human  nature.  If  we  approach  the 
fact  without  prejudice,  the  method  of  nature  will  con- 
vince us  that  when  God  came  to  a  high-tide  in  him. 
He  came  with  the  humanity  furnished  by  a  hundred 
ancestors,  through  all  of  whom  He  had  been  present, 
building  and  modifying  brain-cells  and  dispositions  in 
the  ordinary  way  of  inheritance,  till,  when  He  Shak- 


14  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

spearized,  it  was  not  with  incursion  of  fresh  elements 
that  were  not  previously  ni  the  jDoet's  line.  The 
patience  of  Nature  selected  that  brain  at  length  to  con- 
dense her  pathos  and  her  laughter  like  a  dew :  but 
the  common  air  and  light  hung  upon  its  myriad  points 
those  lucid  drops  that  sparkle  as  long  as  the  genera- 
tions wdiich  provide  those  elements  can  notice  them. 

Such  moments  that  receive  a  great  man's  name 
only  emphasize  God's  ordinary  meanings,  all  of  which 
receive  their  turn  in  religion,  poetry  and  art ;  and 
mankind  climbs  with  these  to  clearer  outlooks  over 
their  natural  horizon.  But,  in  the  emphasis  received 
by  such  a  moment,  what  is  there  to  disturb  the  order 
of  nature?  Things  that  lie  in  a  different  province, — - 
such  as  the  specific  gravity  of  water,  the  condition  of 
a  dead  body,  the  normal  production  of  the  vine,  the 
laws  of  human  embryology,  the  blossoming  of  a  fig- 
tree, —  cannot  become  modified,  or  put  forth  excep- 
tional phenomena.  As  soon,  and  with  as  much  reason, 
might  the  moments  when  Hamlet  was  composed  have 
received  superfluous  attesting  by  quickened  fermenta- 
tion of  all  the  beer  in  Stratford. 

What  place  is  there,  then,  in  history,  for  any  thing 
more  supernatural  than  this  incessant  Presence?  Sure- 
Iv  one  would  think  that  it  would  suffice  the  craving 
of  the  most  inveterate  thaumaturgist.  Indeed,  it  is  a 
wonder  that  there  is  any  thing  at  all,  or  that  there  ever 
was  any  thing,  including  God  himself!  The  vast  fact 
feeds  the  imagination  till  it  is  too  cloyed  for  the  confec- 
tionery of  miracles.  Sometimes  it  seems  inexplicable 
that  there  was  never  nothing  at  all.  "  But  why  then,'* 
urges  the  supernaturalist,  "  after  being  obliged  to  put 


RIGHT    MENTAL    METHOD.  15 

at  the  beginning  of  your  series  a  miracle,  namely,  the 
creation  of  something,  whether  out  of  fulness  or  of 
nothingness,  should  you  shrink  from  repetitions  of  the 
first  divine  act  that  we  can  conceive  ?  It  was  a  first 
supernatural  step  :  why  may  there  not  have  been  sub- 
sequent steps,  making  the  same  gesture  of  incursion? 
You  strain  at  a  gnat  and  swallow  a  camel."  The 
universe  proffers  its  own  reply  to  this  by  furnishing  us 
with  the  right  mental  method.  The  first  step  was 
no  more  supernatural  than  the  God  who  stepped  ;  no 
more  nor  less.  The  gradualism  of  all  subsequent 
creation  refers  us  back  to  gradualism  in  the  remotest 
original  purpose  of  the  divine  mind.  AVe  cannot  use 
the  word  "  beginnmg,"  or  say  that  there  was  ever  such 
a  thing  or  movement.  The  first  term  in  the  series  of 
all  phenomena  was  essential  Eternity :  there  must 
then  have  been  eternally  a  proceeding  forth  out  of 
Eternity.  There  must  eternally  have  been  the  simple 
forthcoming,  of  which  all  things  are  modes,  gradually 
developed,  but  never  aside  from  the  continuous  com- 
pany of  the  divine  developer.  Is  it  too  dogmatic  to 
say  that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  intervention  at 
first,  nor  interpolation  :  not  a  sjDasm,  nor  an  alteration 
of  essential  condition  ;  not  a  jump  from  rest  to  motion, 
from  nonentity  to  pleroma,  from  pleroma  to  primitive 
substance.^  The  whole  universe  puts  the  stamp  of 
its  method  upon  the  eternal  proceeding  of  the  universe. 
Eternal  continuity  precludes  the  possibility  of  a  first 
act,  a  first  flaking-off',  a  first  motion.  The  phrase  is 
"  I  am,"  but  the  deep,  unbroken  breathing  that  voices 
it  has  neither  beginning  nor  end. 

But  suppose   there  was  a   first  act,  and   admit  the 


l6  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

claim  that  it  was  a  supernatural  transfer  of  power,  or 
passage  from  one  state  to  another,  or  intrusion  of 
spirit  into  matter,  or  waking  from  rest  to  motion,  or 
quickening  of  passive  germs, —just  as  you  please  to 
state  it.  If  this  act  placed  all  the  laws  of  nature  upon 
their  route  of  gradual  development,  the  act  itself  is 
a  proclamation  of  the  impossibility  of  supernatural 
interference  with  the  method  which  the  act  involved. 
Then  it  becomes  a  question  of  scientific  obsei*vation  of 
the  method ;  and  while  the  facts  are  coming  in,  and 
opinions  differ,  w^e  must  mark  the  tendency.  And  if 
you  hear  any  noted  man  of  science  affirm  that  he 
finds  nothing  in  nature  incompatible  with  the  idea  of 
miracles,  ask  him  if  he  finds  any  thing  in  nature  com- 
patible with  it.  That  is  the  real  point.  He  may 
say,  particularly  if  he  does  not  like  to  compromise 
his  position  in  an  orthodox  community,  that  none 
of  the  facts  he  has  ever  collected  deny  the  theory 
of  special  interventions,  and  that  for  all  he  knows 
there  may  be  miracles  to-day.  Yet  while  he  says 
it,  the  ground  he  stands  on  is  consistency  and  con- 
tinuity of  law.  A  single  break  in  that  lets  all  his 
facts  through  into  chaos  ;  and  instead  of  a  contriver 
and  constructor  he  becomes  a  chiffonier  or  junk- 
merchant  :  naturalist  and  supernaturalist  may  stock 
his  bag  or  buy  his  truck.  If  a  man  of  science  thinks 
that  a  thing  lies  out  of  his  province,  he  will  be  very 
likely  to  say  that  he  knows  nothing  against  it.  He 
will  not  meddle  with  revivals,  nor  dispute  on  infant 
baptism.  Politics  he  may  ignore.  If  he  is  led  to  in- 
vestigate the  modern  spiritualism,  his  scientific  instinct 
detects  the  shadowy  nature  of  the  claim  that  spirits 


RIGHT    MENTAL   METHOD.  1 7 

intrude  into  the  organization  of  living  persons  to  con- 
trol them.  For  the  breath  of  his  intellect  is  the  idea 
of  non-intrusion,  non-intervention,  the  inviolability  of 
every  province  that  is  controlled  by  necessary  laws. 
The  moment  that  science  consents  to  apply  its  princi- 
ples to  mooted  questions,  delusion  vanishes  before  the 
steps  of  method  :  the  forces  that  are  sufficient  now  are 
declared  to  have  been  always  sufficient  to  transact  the 
business  of  nature  ;  their  gradualism  and  their  ada- 
mantine sequence  tell  the  whole  secret  of  the  past. 

A  confusion  arises  from  the  use  of  the  words 
Natural  and  Supernatural.  If  a  man  says  he  is  a  Nat- 
uralist he  is  accused  of  confining"  God  to  one  original 
act  of  creation,  which  put  blind  forces  on  their  devel- 
oping way  ;  of  supposing  that  first  throb  of  divinity 
to  widen  into  the  undulations  of  all  phenomena  :  as 
if  the  world  were  like  a  cannon-ball  that  carries  an 
impulse  and  leaves  the  cartridge  behind,  or  the  com- 
plicated motion  which  the  stroke  of  a  cue  lends  to  the 
balls  upon  a  billiard-table,  without  following  them 
round.  If  a  man  says  he  is  a  Naturalist  with  the 
divine  immanence  added,  he  is  accused  of  making  the 
immanence  just  as  blind  a  force  as  the  forces  it  travels 
with,  and  it  might  as  well  have  been  left  behind.  If 
he  says  the  immanence  is  a  distinct  Person  and  Voli- 
tion, he  is  still  accused  of  leaving  out  the  attributes  of 
Paternity  and  Love  :  the  divine  Person  only  wills  the 
fatefulness  of  laws.  If  he  says  that  it  is  an  omni- 
present Father  of  love,  who  cares  for  his  children,  he 
is  accused  of  investing  the  logic  of  the  universe  with 
the  phrases  of  religion,  since  logic  is  predestination, 
and  that  can  have  no  care.     If  he  says  that  the  pre- 


l8  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

destination  was  of  that  perfect  kind  which,  in  every 
instance,  without  sacrificing  consistency,  meeting  self- 
ish expectations,  or  deferring  to  human  ignorance, 
secures  true  welfare  to  every  foj'm  of  life,  the  objector 
replies,  "  Very  well,  so  I  believe."  But  does  he  be- 
lieve so?  Then  he  cannot  perceive  the  legitimate 
results  of  such  a  statement.  It  sounds  like  something 
which  he  says  in  a  lucid  interval,  when  his  brain  is 
not-congested  with  miracle,  and  he  narrowly  escapes 
becoming  permanently  rational.  But  this  is  what 
every  supernaturalist  must  really  believe :  that  the 
divine  foresight  must  have  arranged  for  intervention 
as  a  feature  in  its  consistency,  in  order  to  adapt  itself 
to  exiofencies  bv  beinof  somethino^  different  from  its 
own  exigency ;  a  gracious  coming  in  at  the  nick  of 
time  to  obviate  some  previous  doings  of  its  own,  to 
take  back  its  words  by  saying  something  in  another 
key  that  is  not  fateful  but  fatherly,  to  lie  in  wait  for 
the  critical  moment  that  shall  be  a  signal  to  fly  in  the 
face  of  the  immutable  order  with  signs  and  wonders, 
to  get  its  spiritual  excellence  attested,  by  means  of  the 
little  cursory  indulgence  of  a  higher  law,  which  science 
will  some  day  adopt. 

Against  all  this,  we  must  have  a  mental  method  that 
is  not  content  with  saying  that  the  evidence  for  super- 
natural interventions  is  defective,  or  that  if  there  were 
evidence  enough  of  the  right  kind  they  would  be  ad- 
missible. This  is  not  having  a  mental  method  that  is 
the  counterpart  of  the  universe.  The  tendency  of 
science  proclaims  its  belief  that  testimony  against 
itself  is  an  impossibility :  as  much  as  if  a  number  of 
men   should   take   their   bible-oath   that  they  felt  the 


RIGHT    MENTAL   METHOD.  1 9 

earth  roll  westward.  This  is  not  testifying.  We  can- 
not collect  evidence  from  an  ^j^'^-witness  ;  the  method 
of  his  mind  must  affirm  the  facts.  The  more  an  eye- 
witness swears  he  observed  something,  the  more  he 
may  convince  you  that  his  sight  is  skin-deep.  Our 
method  must  correspond  to  the  accumulating  testimony 
of  science,  which  is  that  the  divine  supernature  is  im- 
mutable procedure  through  simple  facts  of  nature  and 
of  mind  ;  the  miraculous  is  im.possible  and  superfluous, 
because  the  supernature  is  detected  everywhere,  both 
in  matter  and  spirit,  doing  the  whole  business  of 
Paganism  and  Christianity,  and  nourishing  the  fauna 
and  flora  of  the  soul. 

The  order  of  Nature  does  not  merely  create  an  ante- 
cedent improbability  that  an  exception  should  occur  in 
it,  but  an  established  order  is  fatal  to  the  very  notion 
of  an  exception.  This  appears  best  on  some  plain, 
indisputable  lines  of  facts,  such  as  that  of  the  invariable 
disappearance  of  the  soul  with  the  death  of  the  body, 
and  its  incapability  of  reviving  that  body.  All  human 
bodies  have  kept  dead  so  uniformly,  and  for  so  long  a 
time,  that  we  have  a  right  to  say  that  what  has  occurred 
nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  times  will  happen  on  the 
thousandth.  We  are  as  sure  of  it  as  that  the  sun  will 
rise  to-morrow.  To  say  that  it  is  not  impossible  that 
the  sun  may  not  rise  to-morrow,  is  to  put  the  safety  of 
a  phrase  against  the  salutary  dependence  which  we 
derive  from  experience.  While  science  and  experience 
proclaim  what  is  actual,  it  is  childish  to  waste  breath  in 
saying  that  nothing  is  impossible.  The  law  by  which 
a  dead  body  cannot  be  revived  is  an  unalterable  fate. 
If  any  bodies,  presumptively  dead,  revive,  the  pre- 
sumption stands  corrected. 


20  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

A  favorite  objection  which  has  lately  been  made  to 
meet  this  view,  is,  that  we  arrogate  a  knowledge  of 
Nature  which  no  man  can  possess.  Who  knows  what 
are  the  laws  of  Nature,  it  is  said,  and  if  she  really  had 
always,  and  always  will  have,  an  invariable  conformity 
to  our  present  experience  ?  What  do  a  thousand  years* 
observation  amount  to?  They  subtend  too  small  an 
arc.  And  in  reality  we  possess  hardly  more  than  a 
hundred  or  two  years  of  true  empirical  observation 
with  precise  deduction.  Yet,  before  all  the  facts  are 
in,  it  is  objected,  we  proclaim  a  system  of  the  uhiverse, 
vote  miracles  out  of  it  because  we  have  not  seen  any, 
and  decide  against  every  kind  of  supernaturalism,  be- 
cause science  has  not  yet  found  and  labelled  it. 

The  answer  to  this  is  very  simple.  Thousands  of 
generations  of  dead  men  preceded  scientific  observa- 
tion. Their  graves  built  the  firm  continent  of  at  least 
one  unalterable  sequence.  And  with  respect  to  other 
facts  which  have  entered  into  the  field  of  scientific 
observation,  the  arc  subtended  by  them,  though  small, 
shows  drift  and  direction.  Observation  increases  the 
draft  which  that  arc  makes  upon  invariable  sequence, 
requires  it  in  every  province,  cannot  stir  without  it, 
draws  It  more  firmly  with  cumulative  evidence  of  law, 
and  summons  unity  to  keep  it  from  straggling  on  either 
hand. 

"  What  is  the  history  of  every  science  but  the  history 
of  the  elimination  of  the  notion  of  creative  or  other 
interferences,  with  the  natural  order  of  the  phenomena 
which  are  the  subject-matter  of  that  science  ?  " 

All  past  and  present  statements  of  supernatural  oc- 
currences have  been  surmised  and   pretended  outside 


RIGHT    MENTAL    METHOD.  21 

of  the  province  of  observation  and  experiment.  There- 
fore there  can  be  neither  historical  nor  scientific  proof 
for  them.  The  past  cannot  be  examined,  the  present 
ehides  the  scientific  step,  or  surrenders  at  discretion ; 
the  surmised  facts  disappear  as  soon  as  the  cross-ques- 
tioning begins. 

And  it  is  a  fair  assumption  of  science  that  the  forces 
which  are  seen  to  be  at  w^ork  at  present,  must  have 
been  the  forces  always  at  work,  and  that  their  present 
method  must  have  been  always  the  same.  When, 
therefore,  we  perceive  no  personal  necessity,  moral  or 
spiritual,  for  any  thing  beyond,  or  supplementary  to, 
that  invariable  sequence  and  recurring  consistency 
which  is  called  the  system  of  Nature,  we  have  a  right 
to  presume  that  it  was  always  competent  to  transact 
the  business  of  the  human  race.  If  at  present  it  sup- 
plies our  most  exacting  wants,  of  physical  health,  of 
conscience,  of  the  obsei"vation  of  facts,  and  the  intui- 
tion of  divine  truths,  the  presumption  is  in  favor  that 
it  always  did  and  will.  The  arc  is  small,  but  it  stretches 
both  ways  with  unrefracted  suggestion  ;  and  scientific 
observation  proceeds  powerfully  now  that  it  has  found 
this  track,  and  is  unfettered  by  abstract,  theologic 
notions,  or  the  assumptions  of  supernaturalism. 

But  what  if  science  should  emerge  some  day  upon  a 
higher  law  of  supernatural  intrusion?  An  advocate  of 
this  says  that  "  a  tree,  seeing  a  dog  run  to  and  fro,  might 
call  that  a  miracle.  The  tree,  unable  to  move  from  its 
place,  could  not  conceive  of  the  possibility  of  voluntary 
motion.  But  no  law  of  nature  is  violated ;  only  a 
higher  power  comes  in,  —  the  power  of  animal  life." 
•  How  irrelevant  is  this.     A  tree,  incapable  of  astonish- 


22  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

ment,  cannot  be  imagined  to  be  astonished.  A  man, 
capable  of  rational  and  spiritual  judgments,  and  of 
perceiving  facts,  cannot  be  remanded  into  the  supposed 
attitude  of  the  tree  ;  he  holds  no.  such  fictitious  relation 
to  any  real  or  supposed  facts,  for  he  is  already  similar 
in  mental  and  spiritual  quality  to  any  epoch  which  has 
claimed  the  guarantee  of  miracle. 

It  is  said  that  "  we  see  such  wonderful  discoveries 
made  every  day  of  latent  powers  in  Nature,  and  secrets 
hidden  till  now  from  all  men,  that  we  do  not  know 
where  to  put  limits  to  the  possibility  of  the  wonderful." 
To  receive  a  telegram,  to  have  your  portrait  painted 
by  the  sun,  to  catalogue  the  metals  in  the  sun's  atmos- 
phere, —  these  things  would  have  seemed  miracles  a 
few  years  ago.  Here  is  a  confusion  of  terms.  The 
wonderful^  the  incredible^  are  words  which  we  apply 
to  the  normal  developments  of  science.  But  the  prog- 
ress of  science  cannot  legitimate  an  old  reputed  mir- 
acle till  it  repeats  it.  When  the  science  that  perfects 
sun-pictures,  or  analyzes  the  stellar  spectrum,  can  raise 
another  Lazarus,  then  the  w^onder  it  excites  will  be 
of  the  same  kind  as  that  which  the  so-called  miracle 
supposes  and  propagates.  Marvellousness  itself,  that 
residue  of  Fetichism,  is  the  real  curiosity  in  human 
nature,  and  not  any  story  which  it  may  invent.  Its 
mythologies  are  less  worth  noticing  than  the  fact  that 
the  unscientific  mind  tends  constantly  to  produce  them. 
If  marvellousness  were  an  essential  quality  of  human 
nature,  devised  for  the  recognition  of  the  supernatural,  it 
ought  to  be  as  strong  with  cultivated  people,  and  the  men 
whose  genius  lies  in  discovery,  as  with  children  and  bar- 
barians.   But  it  is  a  rudimentary  condition.    The  child 


RIGHT  MENTAL  METHOD.  23 

will  hanker  for  the  exceptional,  the  man  for  uniformity. 
Human  nature,  with  all  its  over-haste,  does  not  really- 
come  across  the  supernatural  till  the  best  minds  prove 
that  it  is  impossible  unless  it  is  in  law.  But  this  uni- 
formity works  with  vSuch  materials  that  it  is  a  perpetual 
surprise  and  stimulus  to  the  imagination.  The  man  of 
science  is  always  wondering  what  next  will  yield  to 
him,  so  that  he  enriches  his  method  with  the  spoils  of 
a  universe. 

Shakspeare,  to  give  his  ghost  some  plausibility,  said 
there  were  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth  than  are 
dreamt  of  in  our  philosophy.  The  theologian  quotes 
this  with  a  fine  disdain  of  the  Naturalist,  who  is  sup- 
posed not  to  allow  any  thing  in  heaven  and  earth  but 
himself  and  his  lean  theory.  But  if  there  be  a  Holy 
Ghost  commensurate  with  the  universe,  why  need  little 
ghosts  carry  coals  to  Newcastle?  There  is  One  who 
makes  them  scent  the  morninof  air.  The  Naturalist 
sees  everywhere  through  the  continuity  of  law  a  God, 
who  says  to  him,  "  I  Am."  The  supernaturalist  jumps 
in  with  his  god  from  time  to  time,  and,  like  the  clown 
in  the  circus,  cheerily  announces,  "  Here  we  are  !  " 

But  the  expectation,  that  science  will  yet  find  a  law 
that  may  undertake  the  miraculous  business  of  the  past 
and  future,  persists  in  alleging  our  imperfect  knowl- 
edge of  facts.  They  may  betray  a  different  tendency, 
and  interrupt  the  invariability  of  phenomena.  Are 
there  not  already  some  occult  elements  which  occasion- 
ally displace  the  ordinary  processes  of  the  mind,  and 
connect  it  in  an  exceptional  way  with  the  invisible? 
And  although  the  majority  of  the  facts  of  the  natural 
world  seem  to  furnish  to   science  the  constancy  it  de- 


24  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

lights  in,  may  not  the  rest,  grouped  for  the  present 
under  the  term  Spiritualism^  claim  a  place  in  the  same 
constant  series,  and  keep  a  postern  open  towards  the 
invisible  world  ? 

There  are,  it  is  true,  some  occult  facts  connected  with 
the  unconscious  or  automatic  action  of  the  brain,  which 
supply  modern  spiritualism  with  all  the  phenomena 
that  delude  it  into  a  belief  that  dead  people  communi- 
cate, that  spirits  read  through  sensitive  people  sealed 
books,  buried  thoughts,  remote  contingencies,  that  an 
ignorant  person  is  more  enlightened  than  Bacon  and 
Newton  upon  the  constitution  of  the  universe,  that 
personal  immortality  is  as  tangible  as  a  pump-handle. 
When  these  facts,  which  have  been  hitherto  slurred 
by  scientific  investigation,  take  their  legitimate  place 
among  the  obscure  and  exceptional  traits  of  the  human 
brain,  they  will  be  found  to  belong,  as  is  already  more 
than  suspected,  to  the  great  fact  that  a  human  brain  is 
a  gallery  of  photographs  of  memory  handed  down 
from  the  past  and  enlarged  by  the  present ;  that  they 
may  lie  in  latency,  as  in  a  family  lumber-room,  and  be 
overlooked  or  forgotten  ;  that  the  ancestral  brain-cells 
are  liable  to  revive,  like  a  grain  of  mummy-wheat  in  the 
soil  of  Ohio  ;  that  some  sensitive  persons  can  walk 
through  these  galleries  of  another  person  as  a  somnam- 
bulist takes  his  unconscious  tour  on  the  ridge-pole  of  a 
house  ;  that  the  listeners  can  be  astonished  to  find  their 
own  buried  latencies  and  memories  recalled,  with 
appropriate  names  and  sceneries,  and  striking  coinci- 
dences ;  and  that  there  is  a  subtle  connection  of  the 
brain  with  people  and  neighborhoods  that  sometimes 
transcends    geography,  and    receives    from    distances 


RIGHT  MENTAL  METHOD.  25 

impressions  that  do  not  arrive  by  any  ordinary  express. 
The  witch  of  Endor  may  raise  the  phantom  of  Samuel 
out  of  the  brain  which  the  doting  Saul  brings  to  the 
interview.  The  solitary  brain,  without  the  witch,  and 
without  the  expense  of  a  fee,  has  many  a  time  raised 
the  dead  into  objectiveness  and  overwhelming  prom- 
inence. When  the  cross-questioning  begins,  we  dis- 
cover that  nothing  but  the  brain  is  present  and  alive. 

The  general  drift  of  all  natural  things  towards  a 
theory  of  natural  uniformity  accumulates  the  proba- 
bility against  any  fault  or  dislocation  like  this  assumed 
one  of  spiritual  agency.  The  theory  that  can  absorb 
the  greatest  number  of  facts,  and  persist  in  doing  so, 
generation  after  generation,  through  all  changes  of 
opinion  and  of  detail,  is  the  one  that  must  rule  all 
observation.  The  occult  facts  do  not  like  to  meet  this 
theory,  and  have  lately  slipped  down  a  back  alley, 
expecting  to  meet  there  the  ravishing  Thisbe  of  the 
preternatural,  as  they  cry,  "  I  see  a  voice  ;  now  will  1 
to  the  chink."  When  the  back-alley  turns  out  to  be  a 
blind  lane,  in  spite  of  its  obscure  attractiveness,  we 
shall  hear  them  objurgate,  "  O  wicked  wall,  through 
whom  I  see  no  bliss  !  "  The  occult  facts  will  helplessly 
huddle  there  awhile,  then,  returning  to  the  high-road, 
be  taken  up  by  the  natural  order  and  restored  to  their 
relatives. 

The  "  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth  "  are  the  very 
things  we  need  to  have  brought  in  as  fast  as  possible, 
to  keep  up  a  constant  confirmation  of  the  impossibility 
of  getting  old  miracles  accredited  or  working  new  ones. 
As  fast  and  as  far  as  we  know  any  thing,  the  whole 
drift  sets  against  them. 


26  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

Piazzi  Smith,  the  devout  astronomer,  Is  mad  enough 
to  propose  the  divine  inspiration  to  solve  the  mystery 
of  the  Great  Pyramid.  He  finds  the  dry  and  linear 
measures  of  the  Egyptians  preserved  v^^ithin  it,  and  is 
astonished  to  notice  how  nearly  they  anticipated  those 
of  England.  The  divine  immanence,  through  the 
natural  processes  of  the  mind,  does  not  seem  to  him 
competent  to  have  invented  the  "  sacred  British  inch,'* 
or  the  dry  measure  of  the  Nilotic  people.  God  must 
make  a  special  incursion,  and  betimes  too,  before  a 
yard  of  tape  or  a  bushel  of  malt  can  be  delivered  to 
modern  unbelievers. 

The  very  channels  which  the  astronomer  explored 
were  long  ago  discovered  by  the  Arabs,  who  ^Dut  in  at 
a  small  hole  of  the  rubbish  a  cat,  which  quickly 
threaded  the  mystic  interior  after  her  kittens  at  the 
other  aperture,  and  came  to  daylight  at  the  true 
entrance.  Any  common  thing  that  runs  about  after 
its  own  kind  will  betray  the  direction  of  the  invisible. 
For  the  greater  number  of  natural  facts  must  always 
be  the  forerunners  of  the  scientific  mind. 

Dr.  Bushnell,  searching  among  our  mental  opera- 
tions for  some  element  that  corresponds  to  his  idea  of 
the  supernatural,  finds  it  in  every  free  act  of  ours,  the 
choice  of  truth,  the  preference  for  good  against  the 
stronger  motive  that  inclines  to  evil.  When  v\^e  act 
from  passion  we  are  natural,  when  we  act  from  choice 
we  are  supernatural.  He  thinks  this  element  of  free- 
dom comes  into  human  nature  like  a  new  cause  that 
was  not  before  in  the  world.  Here  is  a  confusion  that 
arises  from  the  prestige  attached  to  the  scriptural  con- 
trast of  the   natural   with   the  spiritual   man.      Paul's 


RIGHT    MENTAL    METHOD.  2^ 

antithesis  points  to  a  change  in  a  man's  quality,  but 
not  necessarily  in  the  natural  laws  which  produce  it. 
When  a  man  chooses  the  good,  he  is  simply  becoming 
the  man  he  was  organized  to  be  ;  and  he  does  it  by 
means  of  the  laws  of  his  organization.  In  this  sense 
the  natural  and  the  spiritual  cannot  be  distinct.  There 
is  no  intrusion  of  a  new  cause  that  was  not  before  in 
the  world.  The  waking  of  his  will  is  no  more  super- 
natural than  the  waking  of  his  body  in  the  morning. 
If  he  burns  off  his  underbrush,  his  oaks  and  maples 
germinate.  As  well  might  fermentation  and  defecation 
be  termed  supernatural. 

The  true  mental  method,  then,  is  Antisupernatural- 
ism.  But  this  is  decried  as  a  negation.  Let  us  rise 
from  this,  it  is  said,  into  positive  affirmation  of  spirit- 
ual things,  and  build  them  with  what  symmetry  the 
mind  suggests.  We  are  tired  of  disbelieving ;  our 
souls  feel  as  jaded  as  the  one  sailor  in  a  gang  who 
should  push  his  capstan  bar  against  all  the  rest.  Let 
us  take  the  real  motion,  and  get  under  weigh.  Some 
radical  thinkers  are  disposed  to  lend  an  ear  to  this 
complaint  about  the  destructive  tendency  of  antisuper- 
naturalism.  They  cry.  Let  us  revert  to  central  things  ; 
let  us  collect  all  constructive  truths  and  attributeSc 
Foremost  of  constructive  truths  is  the  method  of  the 
divine  mind,  as  it  is  seen  in  all  orders,  creatures, 
knowledges.  Why  say  it  is  destructive  ?  Here's  a 
whole  forenoon  travelling  westward,  and  waking  up 
the  scorn  of  every  meridian  at  the  slur  upon  its  fidelity. 
Method  is  organic,  and  it  builds.  It  necessarily  denies 
all  the  miraculous  mythologies  of  the  past  and  present, 
as  the  new  astronomy  denies  the   Ptolemaic  epicycles, 


28  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

which  were  once  the  belief  of  all  mankind.  It  has 
taken  the  sun  and  moon,  and  the  influences  of  all  the 
planets,  to  expunge  them  from  the  science  of  the  world. 
But  what  was  it  that  denied  them  ?  The  positive  truth 
of  the  natural  order  of  the  heavens.  The  epicycles 
were  the  destructives  ;  they  upset  all  planetary  order, 
because  they  went  into  artificial  combination  against  it ; 
they  were  at  best  a  cumbersome  expedient  to  represent 
the  apparent  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  as 
long  as  men's  minds  followed  the  complicated  round, 
they  did  not  walk  with  God.  The  radical  thinker  must 
make  the  anti supernatural  method  the  main-spring  of 
his  whole  activity.  It  must  set  in  motion  all  his  gifts, 
from  perception  to  the  subtlest  report  of  feeling  and 
imagination.  It  is  the  co-ordinating  principle  of  his 
whole  intelligence,  because  it  is  the  supernature  of  the 
natural  world. 

What  are  some  of  the  benefits  of  this  mental  method  ? 
If  it  represents  the  divine  harmony,  we  shall  expect 
to  see  truthful  and  desirable  results  in  the  whole  moral 
and  spiritual  constitution.  We  restore  health  to  all  our 
faculties  when  we  recur  to  the  normal  relations  that 
exist  between  the  mind  and  the  world ;  the  very  ges- 
ture is  the  first  appeal  of  the  sick  man  to  those  habits 
of  air,  exercise  and  regularity,  which  refresh  a  jaded 
system.  The  intellect  pulls  the  stroke  oar  among  the 
divine  crew  whose  forces  mark  the  rhythm  that  spreads 
on  all  sides  into  the  obscurest  inlets  of  nature. 

It  is  a  great  benefit  to  emancipate  a  mind  from  the 
habit  of  limping  after  its  own  truths  on  the  crutch  of 
mythological  authority,  and  to  show  its  relation  of  res- 
pect to  the  past  on  the  ground  that  it  blossomed  with 


RIGHT    MENTAL   METHOD. 


29 


the  same  moral  law  that  beautifies  the  present;  to 
teach  the  natural  permanence,  continuity  and  uniform- 
ity of  all  spiritual  truths,  whether  they  result  from  our 
accumulated  sensations,  or  from  an  intuitional  ability, 
or  whether  the  latter  derives  them  from  the  totality  of 
the  former.  A  right  mental  method  gives  them  all  the 
advantage  of  science.  No  theology  can  juggle  with 
them  or  trade  in  them,  either  with  heaven  or  hell  to  boot. 
The  man  sees  that  he  is  what  he  may  expect.  It  puts 
a  stop  to  all  superstitious  aspirations  for  a  marvellous 
inburst  of  power  to  influence,  convert  or  save.  The 
tide  is  always  moulded  by  the  configuration  of  the 
shore  ;  it  reaches  every  man  where  he  stands,  as  it  does 
all  forms  of  things  in  the  world  that  are  fashioned 
while  they  stay  it.  The  right  mental  method  keeps 
every  man  cool  and  safe  in  the  dark,  like  the  healthy 
child  who  goes  up  the  dim  winding  staircase  to  its 
slumber,  having  gone  up  so  often  in  the  noontime  that 
the  night  shineth  like  the  day.  Method  does  not 
tremble  on  the  verge  of  hysterics,  dreading  some 
epiphany  besides  the  day  ;  nor  will  it  hanker  secretly 
for  assignations  carried  on  mid  the  penumbra  of  Na- 
ture, where  still  some  facts  lie  in  half  light :  they  will 
become  familiar  enough  in  the  gradual  spreading  of  the 
morn,  whose  broad  laugh  will  expose  their  secret  par- 
amours. The  whole  moral  system  becomes  toned  by 
regular  and  even  expectation  when  the  mind  is  con- 
tent with  the  tendency  of  the  greater  number  of  phe- 
nomena, and  expects  that  it  will  include  them  all. 

The  true  method  brings  God  to  man  through  all  the 
legitimate  channels  of  knowledge,  deduction,  emotion, 
and  human  love.     They  are  subject  to  a  continuous 


30  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

agency,  which  cannot  be  stimulated  to  alter  the  nature 
and  number  of  its  facts.  All  the  real  members  of  a 
finite  soul  learn  their  exercise  as  God  shall  make  the 
competent  gestures.  There  i&  honest  bread  for  each. 
The  dragon  which  guarded  golden  apples  is  discovered 
to  be  God's  aversion  to  extraordinary  expectations  ;  and 
the  garden  of  the  Hesperides  is  now  w^ell  laid  down  to 
fodder  and  esculents.  Each  human  faculty  is  a  house- 
hold that  must  expect  its  providence  by  its  own  road, 
as  the  butcher  and  milkman  arrive  by  theirs,  and  not  as 
peculiar  favor  down  the  chimney  into  the  pot  by  pre- 
ternatural gymnastics.  The  laws  of  life,  health,  pain 
and  death,  the  consciousness  of  the  avoidable  and  the 
unavoidable,  will  be  taken  out  of  the  region  of  theo- 
logical surmising,  and  all  men  will  grow  hilarious  with 
the  conviction  that  God  continues  to  be  sane.  The 
steadfast  and  sanguine  frame,  in  which  heaven  is  all  the 
time,  will  disconcert  our  conceited  effort  to  force  it  into 
special  providences  and  means  of  extra  grace.  The 
pulpit  orator,  ashamed  to  pray  for  them  any  longer, 
will  probably  turn  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  all  men 
have  what  they  get,  and  he  will  stimulate  their  hopes 
by  the  knowledge  of  the  laws  that  prevail  in  the  house- 
keeping of  God.  The  sailor  straining  at  the  recusant 
capstan  bar,  who  keeps  the  anchor  in  the  mud,  is 
Supernaturalism . 

What  recesses  of  the  human  soul  cannot  be  reached 
by  the  even  tide  of  God  ?  Its  refreshment  slides  up 
from  gift  to  gift,  and  tosses  its  spray  into  the  face  of 
imagination,  and  lies  deep  around  the  rooted  senses  on 
which  men  stand  to  see  their  hope  of  immortality  and 
consciousness  of  the  divine  presence  reflected  in  it.    If 


RIGHT    MENTAL    METHOD.  3I 

it  ebbs,  we  recollect  the  image  and  yearn  for  the  diur- 
nal freshness.  It  lifts  us,  with  the  rest  of  Nature,  and 
all  things  find  themselves  blithely  afloat.  Nice  obser- 
vation of  an  insect's  embryo,  warm  enthusiasm  for 
the  moral  law,  the  tenderness  that  seeks  its  human 
kind,  and  the  ecstasy  that  claims  kinship  v/ith  the 
invisible  order,  —  the  whole  of  the  soul  is  carried  round 
with  the  planets,  and  rolls  into  the  orderly  influence  of 
all  the  heavenly  lights  :  not  one  faculty  can  lag  behind, 
or  be  dropped  out  of  this  mental  unity.  Nothing  truly 
precious  swims  helplessly  in  the  great  wake  of  God's 
clear  method,  but  every  part  of  the  man  can  be,  and, 
therefore,  strives  to  be,  abreast  of  the  other.  The 
mountains  follow  the  earth,  the  air  has  clasped  the 
mountains,  and  daylight  and  starliglit  stream  forward 
entangled  in  the  air.  Clutching  for  dear  life  to  each 
other,  all  solid  and  tenuous  things  describe  the  great, 
invariable  motion,  and  God  is  in  the  manifoldness, 
drenching  it  with  uniformity. 


II. 

AMERICA'S    DEBT. 

IF  any  person  inclines  to  say  that  America  may 
receive  the  distinction  of  a  Religion  whose  peculi 
arities  will  belong  to  the  wants  and  characters  of  the 
country,  he  is  told  that  Religion  is  a  fixed  body  of  ideas, 
or  a  tendency  that  is  independent  of  time  and  jdI'ICC,  is 
at  home  in  all  climates  and  outlives  them  all,  and 
remains  essential,  while  worship  and  sacramental  cus- 
toms alone  are  modified.  Then  if  you  ask  for  a  state- 
ment of  this  tendency,  or  what  these  fixed  ideas  are 
which  create  Religion,  you  get  as  many  answers  as 
there  are  denominations.  But  all  these  answers,  the 
most  liberal  as  well  as  the  most  conservative,  agree  in 
one  point  —  to  afiirm  that  there  can  be  no  Religion 
where  there  is  not  something  to  mediate  between  man 
and  God.  Therefore,  the  assumption  is,  a  religion  for 
America  must  conform  to  this  universal  necessity,  and 
nothing  in  mixture  of  race,  in  physical  situation  or  in 
social  and  political  ideas  can  select  her  from  mankind, 
to  recommend  some  peculiarity,  or  to  detach  religion 
from  its  general  dependence  upon  mediatorship. 

And  we  are  asked  to  notice  that  the  human  mind  has 
been  occupied  for  several  thousand  years  with  this  idea, 


AMERICA  S    DEBT.  33 

which  began  in  the  cruellest  forms  of  sacrifice,  to  reach 
at  length,  through  many  stages  of  intellectual  improve- 
ment, the  feeling  that  men  are  united  to  God  rationally 
by  the  intervening  agency  of  some  sovereign  person's 
nature  and  character.  God  need  no  longer  be  flattered. 
nor  deprecated  ;  no  human  heart  held  dripping  tow^ard 
the  sky  can  do  aught  but  confirm  divine  aversion,  and 
no  substitution  of  one  heart  can  satisfy  infinite  justice, 
nor  fill  with  its  blood  the  interval  between  earth  and 
heaven.  But  the  most  liberal  thinkers  still  try  to  save 
something  from  this  disintegrated  doctrine  of  sacrifice. 
They  cling  to  this  :  that  there  is  no  way  of  getting  over 
from  man  to  God  till  one  great  heart  bridges  the  chasm, 
and  pulsates  with  the  thronging  of  a  myriad  feet  that 
carry  on  commerce  between  the  finite  and  the  infinite. 
It  is  said  to  be  another  case  of  American  conceit  and 
crudeness,  when  the  Atlantic  is  expected  to  interrupt 
this  development  of  humanity.  Can  three  thousand 
miles  of  salt  water  break  this  dyke  of  life,  which  so 
many  generations  have  builded  with  their  thought  and 
feeling?  It  has  its  roots  far  down  in  the  rubbish  which 
savages  threw  in  to  sprawl,  dark  and  unsightly,  on  the 
bottom  of  life's  mystery :  their  dread  of  Nature,  their 
suspicions  of  the  invisible,  their  frantic  bribes  of  inno- 
cent blood,  their  whole  cowering  barbarism.  Upon 
this  chance  heap  went  cleaner  substitutes  of  oftering 
and  property  in  every  form  ;  any  thing  to  help  get  man's 
head  above  water,  towards  that  glimmer  of  the  light 
and  air.  Schemes,  dogmas  and  ecclesiastical  furniture 
went  next,  the  lighter  rubbish  of  the  mind  ;  but  the 
whole  pile  is  justified  clear  through  from  the  base  up- 
ward by  the  one  feeling  that  man  must  get  to  God : 

2* 


34 


AMERICAN   RELIGION. 


something  must  intervene  to  plant  the  feet  upon,  some- 
thing must  mediate.  It  was  surmised  that  all  this 
work  must  be  in  the  right  direction,  because  the 
downward  pressure  was  diminishing,  and  more  light 
came  to  envelop  the  endeavor.  At  length  the  path 
emerges,  and  the  sun  shines  so  clear,  that  men  are 
dazzled  into  presuming  that  God  has  been  all  the  time 
descending  in  exact  deference  to  every  stage  of  man's 
upbuilding.  This  human  struggle  has  been  a  divine 
travail  towards  an  incarnation.  Let  men  see  it  as  they 
stand  at  length  firmly  above  the  waves.  Here  it  is,  the 
great  Person,  both  divine  and  human  :  he  will  answer 
all  questions,  meet  all  wants.  Without  him  man  is  not 
a  child  and  God  is  not  a  father.  Both  parties  are  non- 
plussed for  want  of  a  bridge.  There  can  be  no  other 
communication.  The  Atlantic  cannot  be  austere 
enough  to  deter  the  logic  of  history  from  colonizing  a 
new^  world.  The  American  is  not  independent  of  it. 
He  must  import  it  with  the  multiplication  table  and  the 
rule  of  three.  Trading  and  Religion  cannot  migrate 
out  of  the  universal  laws  and  exigencies.  It  is  only 
some  destructive  radical's  conceit  that  a  new  country 
offers  to  Yankee  enterprise  a  chance  to  invent  directer 
and  cheaper  routes  to  God. 

It  is  true  that  rapid  prosperity  has  been  surprised 
into  the  indulgence  of  a  flippant  tone,  which  gratifies 
any  foreign  observer  whose  object  is  to  strengthen  his 
own  patriotism  by  counting  our  defects.  He  will  have 
no  difficulty  in  deprecating  a  contemptuous  sciolism 
which  infects  our  thinking,  business,  and  amusements. 
It  seems  that  the  most  successful  citizens  rectify  the 
estimate  of  the  earth's  age  by  the  date  of  their  nativity. 


AMERICA  S    DEBT.  35 

At  least  they  admit  no  chronological  periods  of  im- 
portance previous  to  the  settlement  of  the  country. 
This  is  partly  a  fault  of  position.  Old  ties,  old  lan- 
guages, festivals  and  customs,  were  surrendered  by  a 
few  emigrants,  whose  successors  undertake  at  a  disad- 
vantage the  creation  of  new  forms,  while  they  betray 
that  the  struggle  for  life  has  made  them  impatient. 
There  is  a  culture  of  fine  arts  and  letters,  by  no  means 
of  the  philological  kind,  that  mitigates  the  attacks  of 
an  untoward  climate  upon  the  nerves,  and  touches  the 
temper  with  mansuetude.  The  full  pocket  is  slapped 
less  loudly,  and  nobler  fashions  of  life  and  pleasure 
levy  toll  upon  it.  Such  an  influence  unfortunately  does 
not  yet  prevail  where  the  people  have  been  driven  to 
fight  for  a  position  in  which  the  first  necessities  of 
existence  can  be  obtained.  The  effort  has  made  them 
curt  in  their  depreciation  of  arts  that  seem  to  them 
superfluous.  And  it  even  threatens  to  become  a  prin- 
ciple of  the  practical  education  which  the  town  fur- 
nishes to  native  born  and  emigrant.  At  least  one 
singing-book  that  we  have  seen,  used  by  some  common 
schools,  expresses  it  with  unshaken  sincerity  and  con- 
fidence :  — 

"Long  ago,  long  ago 
Under  Grecian  rule, 

They  could  not  raise  one  spelling-book, 

To  teach  a  boy  at  school. 

Dark  day!  Iron  age! 

Better  times  we  see  : 

And  the  youth  of  classic  fame 

Were  not  so  blest  as  we. 

Shout,  Shout !  all  the  boys, 
Raise  the  song  again, — 


36  AMERICAN  RELIGION. 

We  are  stronger  than  the  Greeks, 
And  we  '11  be  wiser  men ;  "  &c.* 

That  famous  schoolmaster,  Tyrtaeus,  whose  soul 
set  Grecian  sinew  to  the  key  of  freedom,  taught  men 
to  fight  better  than  they  knew,  and  with  a  longer 
breath ;  for  they  served  these  American  occasions 
which  we  use  for  a  license  to  forget  with  such  hilarious 
satisfaction.  Let  some  one  infuse  into  our  primary 
rhymes  a  sense  of  the  benefit  which  battling  civiliza- 
tions have  done  to  America,  as  they  advanced  to  strains 
of  their  moment's  enthusiasm,  to  prepare  her  way. 

There  is  a  sweet  proverb  in  the  Talmud  that  "  The 
world  is  only  saved  by  the  breath  of  the  school-chil- 
dren." But  youth  itself  is  lost  when  some  reverence 
for  the  old  youth  that  fostered  it  is  not  felt  coming  from 
its  lips. 

But  when  it  is  said,  we  inherit  from  the  past  a 
human  need  of  mediatorship,  that  anticipates  the  first 
gesture  which  Religion  can  ever  make  here,  and  de- 
cides the  sources  and  supply  of  spiritual  truth  for 
America,  an  inference  is  drawn  from  the  past  which 
converts  it  from  a  teacher  into  a  tyrant,  and  repeats  the 
sorrowful  mistake  of  all  theologies. 

I  have  yet  to  meet  the  man,  however  radical  and 
sceptical,  who  will  deny  that  we  depend  upon  the  past. 
It  is  a  cheap  device  of  the  newspapers  to  represent  a 
radical  thinker,  axe  in  hand,  furiously  laying  about 
him  in  the  underbrush,  and  levelling  with  indiscrimi- 
nate stroke  the  weeds  that  spindled  up  in  a  week,  and 

*  This  stupendous  paean  is  sung  to  the  tune  of  "  Nellie 
Blj." 


AMERICA  S    DEBT.  3^ 

the  close-grained  trees  that  envelop  with  their  bark 
a  thousand  years.  Any  thing  that  has  a  root  is 
supposed  to  be  predestined  fuel  for  the  radical's 
crackling  fire.  The  popular  fancy  constructs  him 
toasting  his  thin  extremities,  and  thawing  out  bloodless 
veins,  at  a  blaze  of  cedars  of  Lebanon  and  the  product 
of  extensive  clearings  of  the  Mount  of  Olives.  Into 
this  costly  smoke,  fed  with  cinnamon  and  sandal-wood, 
perfumed  with  myrrh  and  frankincense  that  were  trib- 
utes of  Eastern  wisdom  to  the  eternal  child  of  truth, 
he  throws  the  bonds  which  mankind  has  given  to  Life, 
Death  and  Immortality,  and  is  amused  to  watch  the 
bankruptcy  curling  up  the  chimney.  But  if  the  public 
chose,  it  might  observe  the  modern  thinker  walking  in 
the  shade  of  the  primeval  trees  that  still  grapple  with 
the  breasts  of  earth,  and  tasting  gratefully  their  fruits. 
Would  it  avail  to  insist  upon  this  ?  Is  it  ever  worth 
while  for  a  man  formally  to  deny  that  he  believes  twice 
two  to  be  a  minus  quantity?  It  ought  to  be  impos- 
sible to  find  anybody  who  suspects  him  of  believing  it. 

The  sower,  who  goes  forth  to  sow  his  seed,  looks 
straight  before  him,  and  scatters  his  germs  into  the 
centuries  that  lie  beneath  his  feet.  Who,  indeed, 
denies  the  Past  so  effectively  as  the  conservative  who 
twists  his  neck  with  ogling  her  over  his  shoulder,  while 
his  feet,  no  longer  vision-guided,  stumble  on  their  way 
to  the  day's  errand.?  The  Past  is  not  a  mummy-pit 
where  a  man  rummaging  for  ornaments  gets  stifled 
with  the  dust  of  countless  dead  people.  But  it  is  the 
planet's  made  soil.  The  primeval  oceans  deliberated 
over  it,  and  left  a  deposit  of  their  minute  forms  of  life. 
The  mammoth  rivers  tore   the    hill-sides  with  white 


3.8  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

tusks,  and  ran  down  to  estuaries  with  silt  that  tells 
how  long  they  had  been  browsing.  The  glacier  slipped 
over  the  whole  scene,  noiseless  as  thought,  and  as 
well-freighted.  Its  blue  sh-are  both  ploughed  and 
sowed.  And  on  the  surface  gained  by  this  extensive 
labor  of  epochs,  the  skies  shed  their  rain  and  succes- 
sive races  their  blood.  Now  a  man  plants  a  slij)  of  a 
geranium  bush  in  several  million  years  of  tillage  and 
top-dressing.  Does  he  think  he  has  got  an  inch  or  two 
of  yesterday  in  his  trowel?  It  is  so  heavy  that,  if  he 
only  knew  it,  he  would  drop  it  as  if  he  saw  it  was  a 
mountain.  That  young  man's  laurel  has  the  pink  of 
all  the  Caesars'  cheeks  glistening  through  its  morning's 
dew.  A  crown  of  thorns  is  woven  for  these  foreheads 
of  ours  out  of  more  Gethsemanes  than  history  had 
time  to  reckon.  A  few  turns  of  the  spade  anywhere 
will  refute  the  nervous  hurry  of  these  second-hands  on 
the  face  of  our  time,  for  there  are  places  where  a  day 
laborer  can  pitch  a  century  into  his  cart  in  a  forenoon, 
and  wheel  it  off  to  mend  a  hole  in  the  highway. 

During  some  explorations  which  were  lately  made 
upon  the  coast  of  Crete,  the  recent  tokens  of  the  Turk 
were  first  thrown  aside,  to  uncover  those  of  the  Vene- 
tian, beneath  which  lay  successively  the  forgotten  years 
of  Greek, Phoenician  andPelasgic  cities,  till  a  few  stone 
relics  of  the  cave-dwellers,  tossed  out  undermost  of 
all,  lay  on  the  beach  for  the  tide  to  wet.  It  once  slid 
up  to  flatter  the  feet  of  men  who  dropped  their  brine 
into  it  before  earth  learned  the  fashion  of  counting 
human  tears.  Upon  what  a  concrete  we  stand :  our 
minute's  opportunity  secured  by  several  oblivions ! 
But  they  are  not  in  fact  forgotten,  for  we   recognize 


AMERICA  S    DEBT.  3Q 

them  whenever  honor  and  truth  ask  for  seats  at  our 
fireside.  These  guests  have  been  travelHng  to  keej) 
their  appointment  with  us  ever  since  the  workl's  sur- 
face had  pathways.  Now  the  conscience  jDasses  to  and 
fro  by  broad  routes  that  were  first  nothing  but  the 
channel  of  some  barbarian's  tear.  When  that  little 
furrow  set  out  to  mark  some  plain  dictates  of  right 
and  wrong,  that  might  reclaim  the  ferocious  uncertain- 
ties and  fence  them  with  human  security  and  comfort, 
enclosed  in  which  early  smiles  might  spring  to  attract 
heaven's  sunshine,  the  colonization  of  six  and  thirty 
States  with  liberty  was  begun. 

When  we  mention  the  tears  which  have  been  extorted 
by  the  conscience  in  its  agonizing  to  set  free  Truth  and 
win  Religion  by  it,  we  are  reminded  of  a  function  of 
the  Past  that  is  little  understood.  Perhaps  we  are  too 
young  and  prosperous  to  observe  that  mankind  has 
been  shedding  tears  that  we  may  taste  our  truth  well 
filtered.  But  it  is  so.  The  most  cheerful  action  is  as 
pathetic  as  the  most  tragic :  for  its  easy  movement, 
that  charms  the  beholders,  is  a  hint  to  them  of  genera- 
tions of  men  and  women  put  on  the  rack  till  the  sweet 
confession  was  gathered  at  their  dying  lips.  All  the 
torture  has  been  left  behind  in  the  distorted  limbs.  We 
cannot  be  honest  in  our  friendships  and  business,  oi 
exchange  these  new  amenities  of  living,  and  conspire 
to  put  the  rights  of  man  in  a  safe  place,  at  a  less  ex- 
pense than  the  perils  and  longings  of  all  the  Past. 

•"'  For  a  tear  is  an  intellectual  thing, 
And  a  sigh  is  the  sword  of  an  angel  king, 
And  the  bitter  groan  of  a  martyr's  woe 
Is  an  arrow  from  the  Almighty  bow." 


40  AMERICAN    REI  IGION. 

The  best  adorer  that  the  Past  retains  is  not  the  con- 
servative who  thinks  that  an  old  truth  must  be  a 
seasoned  one,  but  the  liberal  who  perceives  that  the 
new  truth  is  a  filtered  one.  The  conservative  esteems 
the  crudeness  that  has  age  upon  it ;  the  liberal  prefers 
the  age  that  runs  through  crudeness  to  a  limpid  drop. 
He  does  not  care  to  taste  at  the  previous  stages,  not 
even  at  the  one  before  the  last.  But  he  venerates  the 
mighty  ferment  of  Nature,  and  never  forgets  that 
human  blood  and  tears  were  thrown  in  to  clarify  the 
bumpers  of  Godhood  that  he  tosses  down. 

He  claims  and  clings  to  every  name  that  is  expres- 
sive of  past  excellence  :  to  the  name  of  that  great  soul 
who  has  been  elected  Mediator  by  Christendom,  and 
thrust  into  an  office  that  only  ill-conceived  texts  can 
arrogate  for  him.  All  the  Jewish  assumptions  of  this 
kind  that  he  ever  made  were  contradicted  by  the 
simplicity  of  his  spiritual  life,  as  it  relied  upon  the 
private  instinct  of  each  soul  to  find  its  God  at  hand. 
Whatever  is  beautiful  in  the  morals  and  piety  which 
make  his  character  so  impressive  to  the  memory,  only 
sei*ves  to  show  how  the  page  is  disfigured  by  the  doc- 
trines of  Christship  ;  and  w^e  shrink  from  admitting 
that  he  could  have  entertained  them.  We  perceive 
that  they  are  nothing  but  verbal  gestures  that  strive  in 
vain  to  limit  and  direct  his  soul's  great  movement,  by 
which  he  anticipated  all  official  station  and  lent  his  per- 
sonal vitality  to  the  cause  of  mankind.  He  permitted 
God  to  become  incarnate,  and  so  he  wins  the  suprem- 
acy of  a  place  by  the  side  of  all  other  men.  In  whom 
the  same  mystery  Is  perpetually  enacted. 

At  one  time  there  were  as  many  pieces  of  the  true 


AMERICA  S    DEBT.  4I 

cross,  well  authenticated,  as  would  suffice  to  build  a 
meeting  house  ;  but  all  crucified  men  have  preferred 
to  touch  the  relic  of  his  sympathy  and  brotherly  love. 
And  that  we  have  inherited,  emphasized,  enlarged, 
organized,  and  translated  into  definite  actions.  Mod- 
ern blood  hastens  to  repair  wounds  and  ghastly  lacer- 
ations ;  to  heal  that  thrust  in  the  side  of  humanity, 
from  which  a  sacred  stream  continually  flows.  White 
lips  languish  on  crosses  close  at  hand,  but  they  do  not 
summon  a  distant  redeemer.  And  the  modern  thinker 
may  wait  at  the  foot  of  the  old  cross,  with  all  the 
heart  of  that  cluster  of  women,  till  the  head  droops 
in  the  kind  swoon  which  takes  that  martyr  off*  to  rest, 
like  a  nurse  bearing  an  infant  to  its  mother ;  but 
instead  of  trying  to  save  his  soul  by  getting  that  death 
imputed  to  him,  he  notes  the  last  gesture,  turns  it  to 
confidence  and  leaves  the  place ;  he  has  no  time  to 
linger  around  a  dying  moment,  and  no  care  to  fancy 
that  it  has  a  mysterious  connection  with  his  life.  His 
own  head  is  alive  with  doubt,  dismay,  unsatisfied 
desires,  the  crucial  moments  of  existence.  Has  God 
forsaken  him?  He  lays  his  head  directly  upon  the 
bosom  of  God,  with  nothing  intermediate,  not  the 
most  beloved  pulse,  not  the  insinuation  of  the  most 
sacred  memory  to  divide  and  distract  the  closeness  of 
heaven.  He  heard  the  mob  of  passions  and  problems 
shouting,  "Let  him  save  himself"  —  and  he  does.  If 
the  prophets  and  martyrs  have  left  one  legacy  to 
America,  it  is  that  (not  so  much  legacy  as  privilege) 
of  prophesying  and  suffering  by  direct  contact  with 
God.  Nothing  but  that  directness  ever  did  or  ever 
can  draw  martyrdom  down  while  rising  to  prophecy 


42  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

Ransack  history  to  see  if  you  can  find  any  other  medi- 
atorship  than  the  example  of  the  great  souls  who 
spurned  mediators,  and  rushed  into  divineness  all 
alone.  Out  of  the  wine-press  which  they  trod  alone 
drips  for  us  the  vintage  of  direct  appeal  to  the  imme- 
diate God.  We  catch  it  in  fhe  cup  of  our  knowledge 
and  attainment,  mere  earthen-ware,  perhaps,  plain 
to  ugliness,  or  perhaps  sumptuously  embossed  and 
ornamented,  and  carved  by  lines  that  thousands  of 
years  have  fondly  hung  over,  meditating  and  correct- 
ing ;  it  is  a  relic  of  the  past,  but  the  drink  is  the 
present  inspiration :  our  own  private  and  incessant 
God  fills  it  to  the  brim.  Plato  and  Socrates  are  still 
extant  in  the  chiselling ;  our  lips  feel  kindred  rubies 
from  the  East  clustering  to  meet  them ;  a  world's 
midnight  thinking  has  gone  into  that  least  curve  to 
the  greatest  content,  a  world's  noonday  acting  has  fash 
ioned  its  foot :  shall  we  venture  to  say  that  the  cross 
of  Jesus  is  with  other  crosses  in  the  stem  ?  Yes  :  but 
the  drink,  the  rapture  that  sends  our  veins  heaven 
high,  the  mouthful,  the  soulful  —  that  is  God  with  tts, 
as  He  was  with  those  before. 

And  see  how  America  has  inherited  from  the  past 
a  material  condition  and  a  moral  temper  of  self-help, 
which  provide  all  the  circumstances  that  correspond 
to  this  independent  gesture  of  Religion.  We  still 
have  priests,  bishojos,  and  overseers  of  souls,  with 
functions  which  a  mature  person  finds  superfluous  : 
yet  the  colonizing  of  a  new  world  meant  that  an  ex- 
periment should  be  tried  of  a  world  without  priest- 
craft, on  a  continent  where  every  man  could  have  reli- 
gion like  air,  gratis,  by  lifting  his  window,  or  turning 


AMERICA  S    DEBT.  43 

the  handle  of  his  door.  As  wealth  makes  our  cities 
impatient  of  frugality  and  simple  ways,  we  begin  to 
recollect  that  there  are  cathedrals  in  the  old  world  : 
architects  import  the  details  of  York,  Westminster, 
and  Strasburg,  and  furnish  them  to  building  commit- 
tees who  want  to  run  up  a  costly  box  of  a  plaything, 
and  a  corresponding  bill.  Westminster's  lines  and 
arches,  which  spring  grandly  to  cover  a  space  that  a 
small  city  might  occupy,  are  pinched  down  to  the 
capacity  of  a  thousand  people  ;  the  great  rose  windows 
shrink  to  knot-holes  ;  the  glass  resents  a  plain,  straight- 
forward daylight,  and,  in  short,  the  dim  religiousness 
sets  in.  Still,  a  cathedral  would  have  swamped  the 
Mayflower,  and  they  took  great  pains  to  keep  it  out 
of  the  hold  ;  and  the  grim,  austere  land  was  settled 
and  subdued  without  the  esthetic  influences  of  stained 
glass  and  ogive  lines.  The  polity  of  Plymouth  Rock 
was  anti-liturgical.  Everybody  was  in  the  open 
weather  in  summer  and  winter.  Now  some  of  us  are 
getting  catarrhal,  and  run  to  shelter  out  of  the  sincere 
climate  of  the  Republic.  Nevertheless,  our  health  is 
promoted  by  ventilation  and  the  outside  of  buildings ; 
and  there  is  no  country  in  the  world  where  such  a 
broad  sheet  of  sunshine  lies  over  one  political  area. 
It  invites  us  to  run  to  and  fro  to  flowers  and  labor  in 
its  robust  actinic  ray.  Every  brain  comes  into  God's 
weather  furnished  with  its  own  roof.  When  souls 
discover  that  vaulted  aisles  bleach  instead  of  protect- 
ing them,  they  prefer  to  be  di23ped  in  a  horizon  full  of 
warmth,  and  drenched  at  every  sense  and  pore  with 
divine  virility. 

Universal   suffrage  is  not  yet  the  symbol  of  each 


44  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

man*s  private  worth,  but  only  of  his  responsibility  to 
be  worthy.  It  ought  to  notify  that  he  has  an  income 
not  appraised  by  the  assessor ;  namely,  that  he  is  a 
moral  and  spiritual  person,  too  costly  for  the  purses 
of  cliques  and  oligarchies ;  never  so  much  the  ally 
of  truth  as  when  he  stands  alone.  He  is  set  down 
in  these  empires  of  states  where  nobody  can  jostle 
him :  he  begins  to  be  effective  when  he  is  not  welded 
in  a  crowd.  It  is  true,  parties  have  their  whippers-in, 
and  we  are  threatened  with  the  drill-master  in  the 
best  of  causes ;  but  a  continent  that  is  too  large  for 
fencing  suggests  to  the  citizens  constant  sallies  and 
excursions,  it  being  plainly  the  genius  of  the  place 
to  preser\''e  individualism.  That  asserts  itself  from 
Boston,  through  Utah  to  the  Golden  Gate,  in  all  the 
excesses  and  virtues  of  an  ambitious  society.  Shall 
we  tame  it  by  lassoing  and  corraling  all  the  indi- 
viduals? No,  but  rather  by  leaving  each  man  free  to 
catch  himself.  This  is  a  work  of  time,  but  any  the- 
ory of  government,  society  or  religion,  that  undertakes 
to  interfere  with  it  in  disgust  or  alarm,  in  high-bred 
contempt  for  inconveniences,  is  out  of  date,  and  can- 
not, therefore,  make  the  new  movement  of  the  spirit- 
ual nature  which  is  to  free  religion  from  mediatorship. 
But  it  is  objected  that  no  new  movement  can  de- 
velop any  thing  new  out  of  the  religious  elements  of 
human  nature  which  have  furnished  belief  and  moral 
behavior  to  all  the  countries  of  the  earth.  It  is  said 
that  religion  is  derived  from  primitive  truths  imbedded 
in  the  substance  of  the  soul ;  some  of  them  are  moral 
truths,  and  some  of  them  express  the  relation  which 
the  creature  sustains  to  the  Creator.     America   must 


AMERICA  S    DEBT.  45 

accept  these  universal  necessities.  She  cannot  im- 
provise a  new  digestive  apparatus,  w^ith  food  to  cor- 
respond, such  as  no  race  of  men  has  yet  tasted.  She 
can  emancipate  mankind  from  every  thing  but  its 
organization.  That  she  must  accept,  else  emancipa- 
tion itself  has  no  continuance.  And  it  is  vitally  de- 
pendent upon  religious  truths.  Can  America  set  up 
housekeeping  without  a  .practice  of  the  divine  economy 
of  the  Beatitudes?  Can  she  afford  to  do  without  a 
God,  or  to  overlook  the  retributive  agency  of  evil.f* 
Certainly  not.  These  are  powerful  objects  towards 
which  the  country  must  put  forth  its  characteristic 
strength.  They  can  only  be  acquired  by  the  entirely 
original,  unbiased  efforts  of  each  individual,  independ 
ent  of  his  memory  of  the  past.  Nothing  is  fit  to 
drink  but  the  water  which  you  draw  from  your  own 
well  freshly  every  morning.  The  Beatitudes  were 
drawn  in  that  way,  and  quenched  one  man's  thirst. 
Did  the  other  people  cease  to  be  dry  while  they  were 
looking  on  to  see  him  drink?  It  might  be  plain  to 
them  that  the  draught  was  refreshing ;  they  might 
extol  it  with  parched  lips,  and  cry,  "  Give  me  to 
drink  ! "  But  if  a  man  who  draws  his  own  Beatitudes 
makes  a  proposition  to  furnish  other  parties,  he  can 
only  be  understood  to  say  to  them  :  "  There  is  an  ever- 
lasting well  of  water  in  you  ;  don't  try  to  let  your 
bucket  down  into  me  ;  besides,  I  go  away  ;  but  men 
will  be  thirsty  everywhere,  and  there  will  be  water 
everywhere.  Will  it  quench  thirst  for  people  to  re- 
inember  adoringly  that  I  drew  my  own  water,  and 
how  good  it  was  ?  "  For  a  beatitude  is  not  revealed 
until  it  is  personally  experienced 


46  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

There  is  a  popular  trick  of  remembering  the  impres- 
sive accounts  of  men  in  India,  Greece  and  Judea, 
who  had  an  instinct  for  water,  and  knew  where  it  lay 
hid  beneath  those  fervent  skies.  And  this  is  called 
Religion.  Men  collect  in  churches,  and  lay  hold  of 
some  kind  of  mediatorial  tackle,  and  haul  at  it  while 
the  preacher  gives  the  time,  encouraging  them  with 
descriptions  of  what  he  knows  they  will  bring  up. 
But  what  is  it  when  it  arrives  at  the  surface.^  Why, 
it  is  just  what  they  let  down,  a  mediating  bucket  full 
of  texts.  The  water  is  not  there,  not  even  the  per- 
son is  there  whose  soul  was  a  well-mouth  communi- 
cating with  the  water.  But  it  lies  underneath  the 
whole  earth's  crust ;  and  these  other  living  persons 
who  have  rigged  this  derrick  that  cranes  across  to 
Jiidea  might  hear  it  trickling  under  their  feet,  or  be 
apprised  of  its  presence  by  the  immediate  divining  of 
their  thirst. 

The  reason  why  so  many  moral  battles  have  to  be 
fought  afresh,  and  the  new  causes  of  righteousness  are 
slow  to  enlist  their  natural  allies,  is  because  the  popu- 
lar religion  is  so  largely  made  up  of  recalling  the 
nature  of  Jesus  ;  holding  his  words  heaven-distant,  at 
the  tongue's  end  ;  clinging  for  justification  to  the  gar- 
ment stained  with  his  blood  ;  trying  to  make  a  ladder 
of  his  cross.  Men  climb  to  the  top  of  that,  and  are 
no  nearer  human  rights  and  sanities  than  they  were 
before.  It  is  just  high  enough  to  give  the  churches  an 
outlook  over  people's  heads.  They  can  "  see  Jerusa- 
lem and  Madagascar ; "  entranced,  they  cry  JiusJi  to 
the  pother  that  enslaving  iniquities  make  beneath 
them.     Lately  these  true  believers  remained  perched 


AMERICANS    DEBT.  47 

up  there  so  long,  enjoying  the  beatific  prospect,  that 
half  a  million  men  got  nailed  to  as  many  fresh  crosses 
at  the  head  of  graves  where  slavery  lies  buried.  Then 
they  come  down  and  vote  it  magnificent.  But  they 
are  soon  up  again.  It  is  a  wasteful  and  slovenly  kind 
of  religion,  this  pulling  at  the  skirts  of  a  mediator. 
America  has  lost  too  much  time  in  that  way  already, 
and  paid  roundly  for  absence  of  mind. 

Put  it  to  common  sense,  then,  if  the  proposition  to 
emancipate  America  from  this  hectoring  stepmother  of 
tradition  into  the  immediate  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God, 
be  not  a  constructive  one.  It  is  so,  if  the  mission  of 
Truth  be  to  organize  and  save  by  the  divineness  of  the 
instant  and  not  of  the  memory.  The  book  is  not  yet 
printed  that  provides  for  the  emergencies  of  our  future. 
There  are  hundreds  of  books,  reverend  with  age,  that 
imply  them,  but  nothing  is  so  futile  as  implication.  It 
can  only  be  read  clearly  by  means  of  such  a  fresh 
inspiration  of  duty  and  courage  as  makes  the  reading 
su^Dcrfluous. 

America  is  an  opportunity  to  make  a  Religion  out 
of  the  sacredness  of  the  individual.  She  did  not 
invent  the  idea,  for  it  has  been  implied  through  the 
successive  stages  of  knowledge  and  civilization.  It 
was  implied  when  an  old  cave-dweller  succeeded  in 
making:  a  stone  lance-head  that  would  kill  a  mammoth. 
When  God  invented  the  human  race,  and  selected  the 
first  men  out  of  animalism  and  set  them  on  precarious 
legs,  he  implied  the  sacredness  of  the  creature  ;  and 
the  implication  went  groping  into  and  through  all 
forms  of  religion  and  the  books  that  chronicled  them. 
The  old  Buddhist  implied  America  when  he  made  a 


48  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

fight  with  the  Brahman  over  the  doctrine  of  Caste. 
The  Persian  impHed  the  superiority  of  the  individual 
over  the  dark  forces  of  Nature  when  he  called  the 
soul  out  of  Ahriman,  or  the  principle  of  evil,  into  the 
light  of  the  sun.  The  Greek  framed  the  proud  thought 
in  his  story  of  Prometheus  freeing  man  from  his  de- 
pendency upon  the  blind  fatalities  of  life.  Socrates 
implied  it  every  time  he  stopped  at  a  carpenter's  or 
currier's  door,  and  brought  out  the  man's  notions  upon 
politics  and  virtue,  to  show  him  how  conventional  they 
were,  and  how  far  below  his  own  sense  of  the  hand- 
some and  proper.  The  Psalms  of  David  imply  citi 
zcnship  and  inalienable  rights  in  every  word  about 
walking  uj^rightly,  working  righteousness,  and  speak- 
ing the  truth  in  the  heart ;  in  all  the  objurgations  of 
the  oppressor,  the  pleas  to  God  to  defend  the  poor 
and  fatherless,  do  justice  to  the  afflicted  and  needy, 
and  deliver  them  out  of  the  hand  of  the  wicked.  The 
same  insinuations  prolong  themselves  into  the  speech 
of  Jesus,  where  they  gather  meaning  from  the  com- 
mand to  stand  fast  in  the  truth  that  maketh  free,  and 
from  the  golden  rule,  which  Confucius  had  already 
promulgated  to  a  nation  more  liberal  than  the  Jews. 

This  republican  implication  was  made  more  notably 
by  Paul  than  by  any  other  voice  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Compared  with  the  twelfth  chapter  of  the  First 
of  Corinthians,  for  instance,  all  the  fraternal  sayings 
of  Jesus  appear  abstract  and  colorless.  They  contain 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  to  be  sure,  but  it  is  as  tlie 
nebula  contains  the  planets.  Paul  gave  the  first  round- 
ing touch  to  that  fire-mist  of  sentiment  which  has  be- 
come  solid  ground    beneath   the    nineteenth    century. 


AMERICA  S    DEBT. 


49 


He  wrote  merely  to  advise  a  Church  to  cooperate  in 
the  display  of  its  spiritual  gifts,  and  he  encumbers  his 
manly  text  with  allusions  to  miracles,  discerning  of 
spirits,  and  interpretation  of  tongues.  But  when  he 
says,  "  By  one  spirit  are  we  all  baptized  into  one 
body,  whether  we  be  Jews  or  Gentiles,  whether  we 
be  bond  or  free,  for  the  body  is  not  one  member  but 
many,"  he  seems  to  be  in  conference  with  Jefferson 
and  Franklin,  proposing  his  draught  towards  the  basis 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Read  in  that 
light  the  chapter  might  astonish  Europe,  who  has  had 
it  upon  her  pulpits  for  centuries,  but  has  not  even 
yet  introduced  equality  into  the  pews.  So  much  for 
the  value  of  truths  that  are  so  vaguely  Implied  that  an 
afterthought  Is  necessary  to  liberate  their  meaning. 
The  afterthought  is  the  genuine  revelation. 

The  abolition  of  slavery  was  involved  in  the  state- 
ment made  to  the  disciples :  "  One  is  your  Master, 
even  Christ,  and  all  ye  are  brethren."  But  who  were 
included  by  that  glittering  generality,  "  all  ye  "  ?  Only 
at  first  the  knot  of  disciples,  and,  by  implication,  all 
future  followers  of  the  Master.  But  Onesimus  was 
not  included  so  far  as  he  continued  to  be  the  chattel 
of  a  Christian ;  and  when-  he  was  returned  to  his 
owner,  the  late  campaigns  of  the  American  people 
were  Implied,  and  not  emancipation.  Nineteen  cen- 
turies bleed  to  clarify  that  text,  and  precipitate  Its  un- 
determined qualities  Into  the  rights  of  Individuals. 
That  blood  has  been  the  really  efficacious  revelation 
of  fraternity,  whose  rubricated  text  finds  no  Bible  large 
enough  to  hold  It. 

It  has  been   assumed  that  the   modern  regard  for 


50  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

woman,  which  involves  her  gradual  release  from  an- 
tique disabilities,  may  be  directly  traced  to  the  golden 
rule,  since  it  enjoins  that  we  must  do  to  men  what 
we  would  prefer  that  they  should  do  to  us.  But  what 
moral  scope  and  intention  were  expressed  by  that 
statement .-^  No  more  than  were  when  Confucius 
anticipated  it.  It  is  not  a  question  of  how  much 
human  equality  the  present  can  gather  and  reflect 
upon  it,  but  of  how  much  it  really  reflected  at  the 
time  it  was  uttered.  If  we  can  be  permitted  to  ag- 
grandize the  old  texts  by  modern  experiences,  we  can 
easily  interpret  the  belief  of  Jesus  in  a  personal  devil, 
and  in  the  possession  by  demons,  into  a  scientific  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  malign  influences  of  unfortunate 
births,  and  hysteric,  epileptic,  and  insane  conditions. 

Professor  Maury,  the  distinguished  observer  of  the 
laws  of  winds  and  storms,  discovered  a  forecasting  of 
his  own  theory  of  the  rotatoiy  movement  of  the  cy- 
clone, and  of  the  circular  sweep  of  the  storm-bearing 
currents,  in  the  text  of  Ecclesiastes :  "  The  wind  goeth 
toward  the  South,  and  turneth  about  unto  the  North  ; 
it  whirleth  about  continually,  and  the  wind  returneth 
again  according  to  his  circuits."  It  needed  no  church 
weathercock  to  teach  as  much  as  that. 

So  we  can  undertake  to  manage  the  plain  belief  of 
Scripture  in  a  second  visible  coming  of  a  Judge  and 
Savior,  and  let  it  down  softly  into  the  representation 
that  Jesus  comes  by  development  of  spiritual  truth. 
But  these  are  the  fraudulent  accommodations  of  occu- 
pants of  modern  pulpits,  who  try  desperately  to  save 
at  once  the  old  text  and  their  common  sense.  One  of 
the  two  must  be  surrendered ;  for  the  point  is,  that  the 


AMERICAS    DEBT.  5 1 

old  texts  meant  another  thing  to  the  utterers  and  hear- 
ers, who  never  anticipated  this  modern  jugglery  which 
tnidertakes  to  spiritualize  their  delusive  statements ; 
they  meant  merely  what  they  said,  and  clung  to  it  till 
reality  outfaced  them,  and  would  not  have  felt  indebted 
to  any  one  who  should  insist  that  they  meant  some- 
thing different. 

If  we  mean  something  different,  let  us  express  it  in 
texts  of  our  own,  and  not  attempt  to  procure  spurious 
authority  for  our  meaning,  by  extorting  it  from  the  lips 
of  men  who  held  obsolete  views  of  nature,  life,  and 
society. 

When  the  world-old  golden  rule  was  reaffirmed  by 
Jesus,  it  carried  only  his  feeling  that  men  must  always 
offer  the  treatment  that  they  prefer  to  receive.  But,  so 
far  as  the  political,  legal,  or  social  equality  of  women 
is  concerned,  the  word  "  men"  expressed  the  ordinary 
intention  of  the  age,  as  the  word  "  citizen"  does  in  our 
constitution  ;  it  never  entered  the  mind  of  the  repro- 
ducer of  that  primitive  natural  preference  for  fair-deal- 
ing, that  it  should  include  the  emancipation  of  woman. 
It  nowhere  appears  that  the  idea  had  dawned  upon 
his  moral  consciousness. 

There  are  traces,  on  the  contrary,  that  Jesus  shared 
the  ordinary  oriental  feeling  upon  the  relation  of  women 
to  men.  He  treated  his  favorites  with  consideration, 
perhaps  with  tenderness  ;  and  what  man  ever  did  less? 
But  he  betrayed  the  same  spirit  which  appears  in  the 
Epistles  of  Paul,  who  derived  it  from  his  own  position 
in  race  and  history,  and  needed  not  to  catch  it  by  in- 
fection. We  detect,  in  the  interview  with  Mary  and 
Martha,  all  the  pleased  absorption  of  a  modern  mysta- 


52  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

gogue  who  has  an  adoring  woman  for  a  listener,  while 
the  householder  and  elder  sister  overheats  herself  in 
the  kitchen  that  he  and  his  retinue  may  be  fitly  enter- 
tained. The  most  inveterate,  vegetarian  and  ascetic 
will  confess  that  more  than  one  thing  is  needful  in 
housekeeping.  Even  the  New  Testament  represents 
that  the  Son  of  Man  came  eating  and  drinking,  as 
probably  did  his  disciples  ;  and  there  are  hints  that  they 
were  not  averse  from  being  entertained.  If  Mary  had 
been  dismissed  to  help  her  sister,  a  lesson  in  the  golden 
rule  would  have  been  administered,  and  both  of  them 
might  then  have  passed  precious  hours  at  his  feet. 
The  good  part  to  choose  must  be  found  in  manly  and 
womanly  fidelity  to  all  reasonable  service.  Christian- 
ity neither  emphasizes  the  equality  of  woman  within 
her  own  sex,  nor  her  right  to  all  the  opportunities  she 
may  decide  to  claim. 

It  was  not  till  Christianity  found  Greek  refinement 
on  its  way  to  the  West,  and  met  there  the  superior 
reverence  for  woman  among  the  Teutonic  races,  that 
Europe  began  to  entertain  a  better  opinion.  The  lit- 
eralist  has  been  always  right  in  maintaining  that  hu- 
man slavery  and  the  subjection  of  woman  can  be  clearly 
vindicated  by  the  text  and  practice  of  the  Bible. 

The  moral  sense  declares,  "  I  have  heard  that  it  hath 
been  said  by  Paul  of  olden  time,  but  /  say  a  more 
excellent  thing."  We  reject  his  half-theological,  half- 
animal  theory  of  marriage,  and  resist  his  contempt- 
uous denial  of  woman's  personal  independence  in  the 
church  ;  and  then  how  much  else  comes  tumbling  to 
the  ground  !  Woman  recovers  rights  of  person,  of 
property,  of  the  widest  education  (such  as  the  ancient 


America's  debt.  53 

Lesbian  school  anticipated),  of  independent  livelihood, 
and  of  careers  in  every  direction  corresponding  to  ca- 
pacity. Where  is  all  this  implied  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament.? Its  spirit  of  humanity  may  claim  direct 
paternity  for  all  these  generous  schemes  of  the  mod- 
ern conscience,  when  the  doctrine  of  particles  of  mat- 
ter, maintained  by  the  Egyptians  and  by  Democritus, 
can  prove  to  be  the  father  of  the  atomistic  theory  of 
Dalton.  He  reveals  and  organizes,  gives  law  and  nu- 
merical ratio,  to  the  fumbling  abstraction  with  which 
the  ancients  inaugurated  the  career  of  this  new  sci- 
ence. 

Centuries  of  housekeeping,  of  improving  politics, 
ameliorated  races,  the  emergence  of  a  middle  class, 
the  development  of  labor,  machinery,  motive  powers, 
of  popular  reading  and  writing,  at  length  make  the 
implication  of  equal  rights,  always  latent  in  the  con- 
science, emphatic,  directly  put,  and  formidable.  It 
was  better  conceived  and  handled  by  Buddhism  than 
by  the  texts  of  the  New  Testament.  But  there  is  no 
revelation  till  an  act  takes  the  place  of  uncommitted 
sentiment. 

The  moral  sense  has  fashioned  the  coast-lines  and 
inlets  that  become  the  configuration  of  every  age  ;  but 
it  has  an  exactinof  and  fastidious  ear.  It  listens  at  its 
work,  and  never  appears  to  be  content  with  the  rote 
of  the  shore  it  has  made.  It  seems  to  be  unreliable 
and  destructive,  as  it  crumbles  old  cliffs  and  submerges 
districts  to  encroach  upon  habitable  soil ;  but  it  only 
prepares  fresh  conveniences.  It  will  not  do  for  an 
apostle  to  tie  his  boat  at  the  old  water-mark,  if  he 
prefers  to  be  afloat  and  in  commerce  with  mankind. 


£J4  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

The  advancing  conscience  stands  deep  above  the  spot 
where  he  rocked  lazily  at  the  pier  which  he  reached 
with  so  much  labor.  The  tide  Is  only  dangerous  when 
It  becomes  stagnant,  and  Its  waifs  and  strays  rot  upon 
the  beach,  and  spread  through  the  neighborhood  Infec- 
tion Instead  of  hardiness. 

The  expllcltness  of  old  Scriptures  Is  an  imputation 
of  the  modern  sense.  All  of  them  latently  presume 
the  honor  of  the  human  nature  out  of  which  they 
flowed ;  but  when  the  time  Is  ripe  for  redeeming 
these  fine  hints,  and  man  waits  to  act  amid  concurring 
circumstances,  he  need  not  go  back  to  inspire  himself 
with  Implications.  He  is  the  sacred  Individual  who 
has  been  expected. 

If  he  is,  he  cannot  begin  with  the  Idea  that  Reli- 
gion Is  a  long-seasoned  set  of  statements  that  comprise 
the  spiritual  man.  He  cannot  begin  to  conceive  of 
a  spiritual  man  till  his  Inspiration  makes  him  for- 
get his  memory.  Then  he  will  know  that  religious 
ideas  are  not  a  clique  sitting  in  the  mind  apart,  to 
issue  a  programme  of  gestures  and  proper  feelings, 
either  with  the  authority  or  by  the  help  of  some  past 
epoch  ;  but  he  leaps  Into  Religion  with  every  pulse  of 
emotion,  pries  Into  it  with  all  his  mental  curiosity,  rec- 
ognizes it  in  the  latest  law  divulged,  honors  It  by  pre- 
serving his  health,  defends  it  across  the  bodies  of  the 
prostrate  poor  and  miserable,  who  see  in  him  their 
mediator  before  the  Infinite,  as  he  deposits  opportunity 
for  them  with  his  vote.  Six  hours  after  daybreak  in 
Europe,  the  sun  touches  his  eyelids  with  red  borrowed 
from  all  her  battlefields  ;  that  fellow-blood  purges  his 
visual  ray  from  purblind  histories  of  truths  and  poll- 


AMERICA  S   DEBT.  55 

ties  not  half  worked  out,  of  religious  systems  that  only 
contain  America  by  implication,  of  ascriptions  of 
praise,  through  Jesus  Christ,  for  the  failures  of  a  thou- 
sand years.  He  leaps  out  of  bed,  and  touches  the 
w^orld's  opportunity  with  his  feet.  His  superb  disdain 
of  the  old-fashioned  style  of  dangling  after  mediators 
rolls  between  him  and  the  Old  World  like  an  Atlantic  ; 
but  through  the  depth  of  it  hearts  telegraph  to  him, 
and  the  instantaneous  message  puts  a  girdle  of  prom- 
ise round  the  earth.  He  asks  heaven  for  the  day's 
business,  worships  when  he  transacts  it  nobly,  and 
binds  his  soul  to  eternity  by  the  filaments  of  every 
nerve  he  has.  They  are  not  transmitting  the  past  say- 
ings of  great  men ;  they  are  jumping  with  life  to  the 
lips,  hand,  and  brain.  His  soul  is  not  feeding  on  old 
honey,  but  the  brain-cells  receive  and  work  over  pollen 
that  his  morning  gathered,  as  he  went  about  detecting 
justice,  charity,  and  the  grace  of  life,  in  the  act  of 
blooming  over  a  whole  continent. 


III. 

THE   AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY. 

''  I  ^HIS  deposit  of  history  which  we  are  disposed  to 
-■■  call  the  American  Opportunity,  is  homogeneous 
throughout.  Its  religion  and  its  polity  came  down 
together,  quite  unsuspected  by  any  temporary  forms 
or  stages  of  either,  and  may  be  found  lying  together 
on  the  site  they  have  reached,  wherever  we  penetrate 
beneath  sectarian  and  democratic  drift.  Individual- 
ism, extricating  itself  from  the  governmental  jealousy 
of  the  Old  World,  asserts  itself  here  in  favor  of  a 
society  that  shall  be  more  accordant  with  natural  prin- 
ciples. The  law  of  individualism  is  that  human  wel- 
fare is  secured  by  the  least  amount  of  governing  and 
of  theologizing :  not  the  selfish  welfiire  of  single  per- 
sons, but  a  cooperation  more  disinterested  than  any 
place  has  yet  attained.  The  country  must  not  contain 
a  horde  of  units  without  any  unifying  principle,  nor 
surrender  every  temper  and  grade  of  culture  to  a 
quarrel  with  its  neighbor,  that  would  result  in  the  old- 
fashioned  interferences  of  the  strongest  and  the  canni- 
est. But  the  individual  finds  himself  thrown  upon  his 
own  resources  of  morals  and  religion,  under  circum- 
stances that  impel  him  to  cultivate  thrift,  but  also 
fraternity.     He  is  his  own  king  and  bishop,  but   his 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  57 

neighbor  is  one  also.  If  they  compete  at  first,  they 
will  discover  that  it  is  an  old  centralizing  folly,  which 
would  eventually  select  some  oligarchy  of  the  adroit- 
est  competitors  to  set  over  their  heads,  to  hamper 
personal  freedom  instead  of  defining  it.  Where  the 
person  is  left  most  to  himself  he  discovers  soonest  the 
paths  of  natural  affinity,  following  which  he  steps  into 
a  crowd  of  men  who  do  not  dispute  his  passage,  but 
welcome  him.  The  atoms  fly  to  a  natural  magnet, 
and  cluster  in  groups,  whose  order  and  symmetry  pro- 
claim the  only  relationship  that  can  cohere. 

It  is  necessary  to  give  some  definition  of  the  word 
Individual,  that  its  use  may  not  imply  a  preference  for 
the  traits  which  keep  people  separated  from  each 
other,  in  attitudes  of  defiance  or  conceit.  And  it  is 
sometimes  assumed  by  the  critics  who  are  hostile  to 
our  theory  of  government,  whose  ink  we  generously 
reinforce  with  the  gall  of  our  ill-natured  habit  of  in- 
sisting upon  private  peculiarities  and  calling  them  our 
rights,  that  the  Republic  is  nothing  but  a  vast  forc- 
ing-bed of  the  defects  which  training  and  culture 
ought  to  keep  suppressed.  Hereditary  features  become 
exaoforerated  in  a  conntrv  whose  egotism  devotes  itself 
to  securing  them  an  opportunity.  Here,  it  is  said, 
every  thing  that  is  characteristic  finds  free  play  and 
use  ;  and  sects  of  one  member  each  can  attribute  relig- 
iousness to  the  points  in  which  men  difler.  "  I  am  as 
good  as  you"  means  that  I  am  born  with  some  darling 
distinction  which  I  will  flatter  and  sustain  ;  I  am  an 
accented  syllable  which  I  shall  proclaim  all  alone,  and 
its  meaning  is  that  I  am  emancipated  from  the  servile 
conformity  of  old   societies  ;   the   country   is   large   on 

3* 


58  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

purpose  that  crowds  may  fall  apart  into  units,  to  per- 
ceive and  cultivate  their  specialities. 

But  even  this  excess  of  private  assertion  uncon- 
sciously favors  spiritual  cooperation.  When  people 
fall  apart  as  far  as  possible,'  and  every  temperament 
achieves  the  most  violent  emphasis,  the  triviality  of 
the  result  is  most  clearly  discerned.  It  is  one  of  the 
prime  advantages  of  voluntaryism,  though  transitional, 
that  it  exhausts  the  human  possibilities  of  dissent. 
Let  it  be  settled  forever  how  minute  and  numerous 
may  be  the  verbal  and  accidental  differences  :  let  them 
be  phrased  and  stated.  As  men  have  come  to  a  mu- 
tual understanding  that  no  two  people  need  look  alike, 
that  even  between  twins  there  reigns  some  way  of 
distinguishing,  so  they  will  acquiesce  in  the  identical 
manhood  beneath  their  various  mental  complexions, 
which  fills  their  veins  with  one  blood  of  the  Spirit,  and 
sends  the  same  flush  to  all  cheeks  when  beautiful  and 
noble  things  are  seen.  That  mantling  color  of  health 
spreads  over  countless  modifications  of  feature,  and 
men  are  to  each  other  as  mirrors,  in  which  their  essen- 
tial unity  appears,  to  surprise  and  ravish.  They  look 
so  handsome  to  each  other  that  they  wonder  at  their 
past  presumption  of  unlikenesses,  and  the  reconciling 
smile  goes  round.  Then  individualism  rises  to  per- 
sonality, and  there  is  an  incarnation  of  divine  truth. 

*'  Mark  how  one  string,  sweet  husband  to  another, 
Strikes  each  in  each  by  mutual  ordering : 
Resembling  sire  and  child  and  happy  mother. 
Who  all  in  one,  one  pleasing  note  do  sing; 
Whose  speechless  song,  being  many,  seeming  one, 
Sing  this  to  thee  — '  thou  single  wilt  prove  none.'" 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  59 

The  Individual  is  sacred  by  virtue  of  this  organic 
fellow-feeling  that  moral  and  spiritual  truth  has  for 
itself  wherever  it  can  be  found.  It  may  go  masquerad- 
ing in  all  the  costumes  of  all  latitudes,  with  the  intent 
to  enjoy  clothing  suitable  to  the  physical  meridian. 
These  and  manners  are  disguises,  but  the  real  person 
delights  in  the  pursuit  of  himself,  and  recognizes  his 
essential  being  however  clad.  It  will  be  vain  for 
denominations  to  establish  tests  of  fellov/ship,  as  soon 
as  the  individuals  appreciate  that  they  have  been 
holding  each  other  at  arm's-length  only  as  friends  do 
who  have  been  long  separated,  to  study  each  other 
with  a  jealous  gaze,  and  recover  through  the  aliena- 
tions of  time  and  place  the  old  tokens  of  affinity. 

The  unit  will  perceive  that  he  is  sacred  in  the  inter- 
est of  unity,  and  not  because  he  happens  to  be  one  of 
many.  Merely  as  one,  he  is  oppressed  by  his  private 
pretension  ;  his  much  lauded  freedom  of  being  singu- 
lar becomes  a  cause  of  inconvenience  to  himself  and 
others.  Everybody  who  thinks  of  fortifying  his  speci- 
ality as  an  individual,  only  succeeds  in  putting  himself 
Into  a  state  of  siege,  till,  hunger  and  thirst  growing 
intolerable,  he  destroys  his  own  outworks  by  a  suc- 
cessful sortie,  and  effects  a  junction  with  his  real  self 
in  the  open  country. 

Thus,  when  we  say  that  the  sacredness  of  the  Indi- 
vidual is  the  basis  of  American  Religion,  we  accept  a 
definition  which  identifies  the  person  with  the  elements 
of  religion  as  it  is  to  be  described.  This  religious 
identity  is  the  natural  affinity  which  demands  and 
secures  the  service  of  each  individual  for  the  other, 
and  prompts  the  sacrifices  of  the  republic. 


6o  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

Such  is  the  law  which  will  eventually  rise  superior 
to  demagoguism  ;  to  the  vulgar  ambitions  of  new  rich 
men,  and  the  selfishness  that  finds  its  opportunity  only 
where  it  can  be  sure  of  pernianent  protection  when- 
ever it  is  organized.  But  here  the  individual  inces- 
santly opposes  the  selfishness  of  the  few  in  order  to 
secure  the  cooperation  of  all.  For  selfishness  is  a  tend- 
ency to  be  regulated  since  it  cannot  be  extinguished. 

So  each  person  says :  "  I  want  the  minimum  of 
governing  and  the  maximum  of  welfare  ;  as  little  as 
possible  that  is  official  in  my  politics  and  my  religion. 
Who  shall  make  up  my  mind  about  either  but  myself? 
As  soon  as  interference  passes  the  bound  of  coopera- 
tion, I  find  luggage  that  belongs  to  other  people  fast- 
ened to  my  back.  In  religion,  especially,  I  can  carry 
all  that  I  have  within,  for  nature  has  decided  that 
capacity,  but  not  a  rag  or  a  scheme  brought  over  from 
old  theological  depots  of  cast  off  garments.  If  any 
worshi^Dping  is  to  be  done,  let  my  person,  in  its  integ- 
rity of  mind  and  body,  be  anthem,  liturgy,  and  ofier- 
ing." 

We  are  far  enough  yet  from  such  a  simple  adjust- 
ment of  the  soul  with  the  sincerity  of  things.  Volun- 
taryism is  enjoying  its  fancies  and  crotchets  ;  all  the 
sects  are  sitting  apart  to  examine  what  the  grab-bag 
has  yielded  them.  But  these  gifts  are  very  trivial,  for 
theology  is  a  mean  provider  at  its  fair  ;  its  object  being 
to  raise  a  good  deal  of  money  at  a  little  outlay.  So 
people  play  awhile  with  Orthodox,  Baptist,  and  Uni- 
tarian dolls  :  make  the  eyes  roll  and  the  limbs  gesticu- 
late. The  people  who  represent  individualism  soon 
get  tired,  petulantly  tear  the  dolls  apart,  smile  at  the 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  6 1 

sawdust  and  watch-springs,  and  throw  them  into  the 
rubbish.  Indeed,  all  the  people  suspect  that  their  own 
souls  are  contrivances  superior  to  these ;  and  when 
they  are  not  nursing  a  doll,  you  may  catch  them  with 
their  arms  full  of  the  glorious  babe  of  humanit}^, 
pressing  it  close  to  the  universal  instinct  to  recognize 
a  Son  of  God.  This  rapture  passes  away  ;  in  fact, 
that  babe  has  heaven  in  it  and  weighs  somewhat ;  for 
daily  carrying,  a  doll  may  be  slung  anywhere,  while 
the  rest  of  the  man  attends  to  the  concerns  of  his  fam- 
ily and  town.  After  all,  despotism  has  a  better  time 
in  the  meeting-houses  than  it  can  have  along  the 
streets,  where  any  street-organ  that  touches  a  heart's 
tune  gathers  its  crowd  of  Sunday  dissidents,  who  drop 
the  current  coin,  and  perhaps  the  tear. 

But  we  ought  to  emphasize  the  characteristic  into 
which  the  eftbrts  of  mankind  at  self-government  have 
been  filtered.  When  it  comes  to  the  point  in  this 
country,  and  justice  applies  her  test,  the  sacredness  of 
the  individual  is  sure  to  appear.  There  is  not  enough 
tradition  left  over  to  smother  it.  The  demagogue  may 
point  after  great  numbers  of  individuals  who  are  gro- 
tesquely clad  and  favored  ;  as  badly  bred  but  not  as 
bitter  as  himself,  —  too  miserable  for  that,  —  as  stupid 
but  not  as  obstinate  ;  as  hungry  but  not  as  unscrupu- 
lous ;  with  skin  as  dark  but  not  as  unwashed.  He 
can  whistle  a  crowd  down  the  street  in  pursuit  of  these 
men,  and  perhaps  persuade  it  to  select  some  lamp- 
post to  make  his  Anti-Americanism  conspicuous. 
But  the  next  time  those  despised  and  rejected  people 
are  seen  on  the  pavement,  they  are  better  clad  aiul 
furnished  with  ideas,  and  have  a  bit  of  paper  in  tlicir 


62  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

hand,  the  death-sentence  of  the  demagogue.  He  had 
sinned  against  the  unwritten  law  of  the  land,  and 
now  it  flames  in  bright  letters  along  every  wall. 

If  a  theologian,  wishing  to  uncoil  his  paper-barri- 
cade of  a  creed,  would  have  it  safe,  let  him  not  do  it 
across  the  road  while  Liberty  is  passing  to  keep  her 
appointment  with  men.  Put  fences  up  in  meeting- 
houses, turn  every  pew  into  a  pound,  but  be  careful 
not  to  block  the  highway.  If  a  question  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  individual  arises,  the  very  pew-holders 
fall  into  column,  and  breathe  the  air  of  pure  and  un- 
defiled  religion  outside.  What  a  pity  it  is  that  they 
ever  let  themselves  be  impounded  again !  Do  they 
let  their  selves  be  impounded  ?  How  much  of  church- 
going  is  mere  passing  by  the  sexton  of  suits  of  clothes 
to  seats?  Perhaps  the  souls  exchange  winks  of  recog- 
nition. 

It  will  be  strange  If  the  popular  mind,  inheriting  a 
lively  distaste  for  being  over-governed  and  directed, 
does  not  also  gather  from  the  past  a  salutary  experi- 
ence of  the  debilitating  effect  of  mediatorial  schemes 
of  religion.  They  have  not  only  dragooned  men  into 
conformity  by  methods  known  to  despotic  states,  but 
have  inflicted  an  injury  deeper  than  any  that  lurked 
behind  the  walls  of  the  inquisition,  by  teaching  the 
soul  to  walk  with  stilts  and  crutches  Instead  of  with 
its  own  members.  People  outgrow  Mariolatry,  invo- 
cation of  saints,  cringing  at  the  slits  of  the  confessional, 
but  it  is  at  the  expense  of  growing  into  idolatry  for 
the  Bible,  and  the  superstition  that  a  Redeemer  as- 
sumes the  function  which  his  mother  and  the  saints 
have  vacated.     The  soul  Is  weakened  by  learning  to 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  63 

lean  upon  a  go-between.  It  is  generally  noised  about 
by  leading  minds  that  they  have  tried  to  obtain  divine 
truth  by  more  independent  methods,  and  have  failed. 
The  result  of  this  abject  adherence  to  a  single  person, 
or  to  the  narrative  of  a  single  life,  even  in  its  most 
liberal  form,  is  to  keep  up  a  piety  of  reminiscence, 
and  throw  discredit  upon  every  original  mental  move- 
ment that  is  urged  by  modern  circumstances.  It  is  in 
vain  that  a  mediatorial  scheme  becomes  enlightened, 
as  it  is  called :  freed,  that  is,  from  notions  of  an  atone- 
ment, of  some  mysterious  influence  of  a  sacrifice  by 
death,  and  of  some  supernatural  element  in  the  per- 
son's life  and  character.  Even  the  miraculous  color- 
ing of  the  narrative  is  in  vain  toned  down,  and  held 
subordinate  to  its  spiritual  ideas.  The  most  robust 
and  intelligent  worshipper  of  a  dead  Master  of  reli- 
gious life  cannot  avoid  presuming  that  he  was  some- 
thing exceptional ;  the  solitary  perfection  and  felicity 
of  human  nature,  who  still  exerts  a  mystic  influence 
upon  the  soul,  and  is  capable  of  immediate  personal 
communion  with  the  believer.  Hearts  that  cherish 
emotions  of  regret  and  admiration  begin  fancying 
that  he  still  suggests  substantial  inoods,  and  commu- 
nicates something  from  the  infinite.  Thus  superfluous 
sentiments  encumber  the  nature,  amuse  and  occupy 
the  mind,  and  finally  become  subjective  habits  which 
are  easily  mistaken  for  objective  facts,  and  are  of  the 
same  flaccid  fibre  with  the  dreams  and  raptures  of  the 
mediaeval  saint.  Charity  itself  becomes  an  imitation 
of  a  person  who  is  supposed  to  have  revealed  for  the 
first  time  how  divine  it  is.  There  is  a  soft  and  delight- 
ful playing  at  beneficence  ;    it  breaks  out  In  vestries 


64  AMERICAN    RELIGIOIS. 

hung  with  mottoes,  where  people  assemble  to  enjoy 
tableaux  of  religious  sociability.  It  rages  at  fairs 
started  to  buy  an  organ,  carpet  the  aisles  of  the  Church 
of  the  Nativity,  stock  the  library  of  the  Sunday  School 
with  razeed  novels.  And  when  the  brotherhood  of 
man  is  patronized,  it  is  under  the  authority  of  some 
fraternal  sayings  of  the  great-hearted  man  who  was 
despised  by  his  generation.  Every  person  who  longs 
to  be  moored  and  at  rest  fastens  his  cable  backward 
to  those  verbal  buoys  ;  every  person  who  sees  some- 
thing to  be  accomplished  runs  his  band  around  that 
distant  feeding-wheel  of  one  man's  character.  The 
waste  of  power  is  great ;  it  is  mainly  absorbed  by 
holding  up  this  enormous  length  of  reminiscence. 
The  mind  imagines  that  it  is  engaged  in  spontaneous 
and  freshly  born  virtue,  when  it  is  only  recurring  to 
the  tradition  of  it.  This  imitation  may  raise  money 
and  produce  various  social  and  ecclesiastical  effects, 
but  it  leaves  personal  inspiration  crippled  :  the  soul  is 
no  longer  a  pioneer  but  a  dependent.  The  muscles 
of  the  individual  are  deprived  of  their  formidable 
natural  movements  by  learning  this  continuous  back- 
ward gesture  ;  it  is  finely  and  gracefully  acquired,  but 
at  the  expense  of  some  stunting  to  the  whole  manhood. 
Only  the  best  conditioned  people  can  do  their  work 
handsomely  under  this  drawback. 

But  they  do  a  very  ill  service  to  the  average  mind 
of  the  country,  or  to  those  who  from  mixed  motives 
personally  adhere  to  them,  when  they  infer  that  their 
successful  struggle  with  a  disadvantage  is  the  natural 
superiority  of  their  mediating  scheme.  Even  if  their 
morality  never  degenerated  into  mimicry,  they  vs^ould 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  65 

have  no  case.  There  is  not  one  theology  that  Is  not 
true  to  the  extent  of  its  ethical  ability.  Fetichism 
could  have  made  as  large  a  boast,  while  preventing  it 
from  growing  larger.  Bad  mental  method  sometimes 
makes  an  atheist  of  a  man  who  can  claim  all  neigh- 
borly and  admirable  qualities :  they  are  the  proof  of 
the  God  whom  he  imagines  he  is  denying. 

Plenty  of  manly  people  swear  by  the  stiffest  cate- 
chisms all  life  long,  who  put  them  into  the  cupboard 
if  any  sudden  peril  knocks  at  their  door  to  startle  the 
blood  into  heroism  ;  and  perhaps  their  dead  leaves 
may  be  rolled  into  cartridges  for  a  living  flame,  as 
they  take  the  field  with  men  who  never  saw  a  cate- 
chism, or  imagined  that  they  held  spiritual  life  in 
consequence  of  a  man  who  died  once.  The  heavy 
and  the  light  believers  use  the  common  cartridge  to 
some  purpose  before  the  affair  is  through.  The  only 
mediator  in  such  business  is  the  God-given  pluck  that 
forgets  every  thing  but  the  defence  of  the  new  truth 
that  is  in  danger  close  at  hand. 

The  most  advanced  mechanics  of  liberal  religion, 
observing  how  men  have  been  retarded  by  their  cum- 
brous attachments  to  that  distant  centre  where  motive- 
power  is  supposed  to  reside,  have  invented  thinner  and 
lighter  bands.  Catholic  paganism,  Orthodox  inconse- 
quence, are  laid  aside.  All  the  rude  mediaeval  methods 
are  discarded  by  these  shifty  liberals,  who  cry  from 
their  stand,  "  Here  is  a  new  patent,  the  latest  product 
of  American  ingenuity,  this  flexible  yet  durable  con- 
nection with  a  redeeming  person  ;  it  only  weighs  an 
ounce  where  the  old  fabrics  weighed  a  ton,  almost 
thin  as  gossamer  yet  tough  as  steel,  this  subtly  spun 


56  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

web  of  intimacy  with  a  great  divine  Brother,  who 
was  no  kind  of  a  God  at  all,  far  from  it,  nor  any 
supernatural  official ;  who  worked  miracles,  to  be  sure, 
because  he  could  not  help  it  any  more  than  the  birds 
can  help  singing,  but  whd  never  emphasized  them 
offensively,  nor  used  them  to  sugar  coat  his  truths ; 
the  one  divine  man  who  so  actually  became  what  is 
only  possible  with  us,  that  his  actuality  introduces  our 
possibility  to  God  :  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life : 
alive  to-day,  a  personality  as  large  as  Christendom, 
and  in  close  consultation  with  every  point  of  the  sur- 
face ;  so  that  men  have  a  medium  that  was  born  out 
of  their  own  human  nature,  and  something  of  iden- 
tical texture  all  the  way  from  earth  to  heaven  is  now 
ready  for  delivery  to  parties.  How  many  will  your 
parish  take?  Hasten  to  connect  your  inner  works 
with  this  source  of  movement  by  slipping  on  a  rational 
mediator.  Price  ?  Ah  —  only  a  pew-tax  apiece."  It 
may  weigh  an  ounce  where  the  other  methods  weighed 
a  ton ;  but,  unfortunately,  ounces  in  the  long  run 
accumulate  so  frightfully  that  we  begin  to  doubt  the 
need  of  deriving  our  power  in  this  way  from  a  source 
beyond  ourselves.  We  notice  that  our  other  functions 
do  not  have  to  travel  so  far  to  be  fed.  Even  if  this 
great  Brother,  who  is  alive  to-day,  be  somewhere  in 
this  neighborhood,  what  accommodation  can  I  offer 
him?  His  Father  has  hired  my  premises,  and  would 
fain  occupy  all  the  rooms,  from  garret  to  cellar. 

We  are  kept  alive  upon  this  spot  where  we  now 
stand,  from  this  food  at  our  feet  and  this  ambient  light 
and  air.  There  is  a  power  with  us,  occupying  the 
actual   interior   of   this   body,  commensurate   with    a 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  6*] 

thousand  million  similar  bodies :  there  is  not  the  dis- 
tance of  an  inch  between  us  and  it.  Sublimely  eco- 
nomical, it  makes  the  body  its  instantaneous  link  of 
communication.  Cannot  the  power  which  sustains, 
without  budging  from  the  spot,  my  personal  vitality, 
sustain  and  nourish  the  immediate  conscience  of  which 
that  vitality  makes  me  aware?  I  cannot  hurt  my 
health,  nor  tell  a  lie,  nor  commit  a  fraud,  nor  strike  my 
brother,  nor  leave  the  beggar  in  the  ditch,  nor  parade 
my  superiorities,  without  knowing  it  by  direct  intima- 
tion. My  pains  are  its  rebukes,  my  delights  its  sym- 
pathy, my  hopes  its  suggestions,  my  sacrifices  its 
impost,  my  heavenl}^  longings  its  apology  for  haunting 
me  forever.  There  is  a  Power  in  which  I  live  and 
move  and  have  my  being,  in  which  I  eat,  drink,  breathe, 
sleep  and  wake,  love  and  hate,  marry  and  protect  a 
home.  Is  it  incapable  of  sustaining  all  my  functions 
of  direct  religion  on  the  spot,  as  well  as  these  ?  Do  I 
have  these  without  a  mediator,  and  must  I  travel  for 
the  rest?  When  I  undertake  to  breathe  by  tradition  it 
will  be  time  for  me  to  get  a  sense  of  God  in  the  same 
way.  For,  look  you,  Jesus  breathed  where  he  stood. 
If  I  cannot  breathe  where  I  stand,  I  cannot  do  it  by 
standing  elsewhere.  I  am  hardly  conscious  that  I 
draw  this  morning's  air,  and  sweeten  myself  clear 
tlirough  with  it  just  where  I  stand  on  my  two  feet, 
till  you  insist  that  I  make  a  great  mistake  in  drawing 
this  air,  unmixed,  as  God  brews  it  over  Massachusetts. 
My  lungs  have  expanded  to  a  calibre  that  corresponds, 
and  I  can  take  it  undiluted  ;  stand  up  and  take  it 
streaming  to  my  nostrils  and  my  lips. 

No  plan  for  furnishing  mediatorial  power  can  sur- 


68  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

vive  this  test  of  private  experience.  The  Nile  is  only 
a  geographical  fact  to  the  miller  who  finds  a  stream 
upon  his  own  groinids  that  is  able  to  turn  his  wheel. 
He  delights  more  in  that  than  in  reports  concerning 
the  freshet  that  makes  the  distant  desert  blossom. 
And  a  stream  may  still  roll  on  between  the  shattered 
hints  of  its  old  civilization,  without  lonsf  movinsf  the 
regrets  of  men  w^ho  build  by  new  streams  the  monu- 
ments of  Nature's  unchangeable  resources. 

This  private  experience  must  be  quite  general,  or  it 
fails  in  something  that  is  important  to  its  authority. 
We  would  say,  it  must  be  universal,  if  ignorance  and 
passion  had  not  taught  us  that  there  are  misfortunes  of 
birth  and  bringing  up  ;  these  distort  and  obscure  the 
oriofinal  intention  of  conscience.  A  grreat  manv  cases 
are  then  commended  to  the  prevailing  sense  for  justice 
and  humanity.  But  if  it  prevails  enough  to  secure  a 
countrv  where  the  individual,  notwithstandins:  moral 
feebleness  and  a  sluggish  intuitive  perception,  is  still 
considered  sacred,  it  is  universal  enough  to  show  that 
moral  strength  and  intuition  are  born  upon  the  spot, 
for  immediate  consumption,  and  not  derived  through 
the  delay  and  wastage  of  importation  from  foreign 
lands. 

As  soon  as  this  general  conscience  is  applied  to  the 
cases  of  hereditary  obliquity,  to  the  victims  of  oppres 
sion  and  neglect,  and  to  the  dangerous  people,  they 
also  betray  a  relationship  to  the  universal  soul ;  so  that, 
at  length,  no  sanitary  method  is  safe  or  prosperous 
which  does  not  begin  by  assuming  that  God  is  healthy 
just  behind  its  subjects  also,  in  spite  of  appearances, 
and  that  their  health,  if  gained  at  all,  must  be  gained 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  69 

through  their  direct  communion  with  Him.  We  may 
appeal  to  them  with  traditional  phrases,  but  our  genu- 
ine appeal  is  in  the  instant's  fraternity  that  startles  a 
slumbering  family  feeling ;  it  is  something  in  the 
method  that  labors  with  them  that  takes  their  sonship 
for  granted  ;  it  is  the  latest  common  sense  that  consults 
{.he  latest  knowledge  in  the  interest  of  this  sacredness, 
puts  science  in  the  place  of  sentiment,  and  sets  a  living 
Commonwealth  to  restore  them  to  their  spiritual  rights. 
And  no  name  less  venerable  than  the  name  of  God 
need  be  spoken  during  this  vindication  of  God's  pres- 
ence :   nor  that  either  so  long  as  it  is  vindicated. 

In  this  way  private  experience  discovers  the  organic 
laws  that  sustain  the  human  reason,  or  minister  to  its 
restoration  when  it  has  become  impaired. 

Organic  laws  do  not  deal  in  superfluities.  They 
enlarge  all  things  to  their  true  nature  by  stripping 
them  of  the  incumbrances  of  methods  that  were  sren- 
erated  by  phrases.  At  first,  when  these  mufflers  are 
taken  oft',  the  size  of  manhood  seems  diminished. 
But  it  has  laid  aside  the  aspect  that  was  only  imposing 
to  childish  eyes,  to  assume  compact,  clean  and  virile 
proportions.  Then  men  perceive  that  a  well-trained 
strength  either  threatens  or  invites  them,  as  they 
please. 

When  ancient  investigation  consented  to  put  up  with 
phrases,  the  development  of  science  was  arrested,  not 
to  be  resumed  till  natural  forces  were  substituted  for 
verbal  ingenuity.  Thus,  when  Pythagoras  said  that 
Number  was  the  cause  of  all  created  things,  he  vaguely 
implied  the  modern  discoveries  of  the  numerical  ratios 
that  exist  in  astronomv,  chemistrv,  harmonv,  indeed. 


70  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

wherever  material  elements  betray  the  existence  of 
Force  ;  but  instead  of  becoming  acquainted  with  force 
or  motion,  he  lingered  speculating  with  the  conception 
of  Number,  and  then  his  discoveries  were  mainly 
accidents.  So  when  Aristotle  explained  the  weight 
and  the  falling  of  bodies  by  the  notion  that  some  things 
must  be  absolutely  light,  and  some  absolutely  heavy, 
gravitation  had  to  wait  for  a  Newton  to  discard  the 
empty  phrases,  and  discover  the  natural  energy  which 
held  him  bound  to  one  spot  as  he  went  spinning  with  a 
central  force,  in  balanced  harmony  with  all  the  worlds. 

So  theology  has  been  working  at  the  notion  that  the 
individual  conscience  subsists  in  consequence  of  a  Book, 
and  rotates  around  that,  or  is  first  stimulated  into  action 
by  it ;  that  its  authority  is  a  page  of  print ;  that  it  is 
developed,  or  redeemed,  by  the  life  or  the  death  of  one 
person  therein  narrated.  These  phrases  disappear  as 
soon  as  the  individual  discovers  that  his  soul  defers  to 
organic  truth  as  his  body  defers  to  gravitation.  Both 
are  on  the  spot ;  natural  directions  of  forces  which  are 
displayed  through  him.  How  he  sheds  doctrinal  su- 
perfluities, as  he  does  the  despotic  interferences  with 
politics,  trade  and  family  life,  which  assume  his  inca- 
pacity for  self-government ! 

In  this  way,  by  long  living  upon  the  earth.  Religion 
has  learned  to  divest  itself  of  every  thing  that  is  not 
essential  to  its  life.  By  successions  of  battles  and 
marches  mankind  has  found  out  just  what  it  ought  to 
carry  :  the  minimum  of  weight  with  the  maximum  of 
eflectiveness.  With  less,  there  may  be  famine  ;  with 
more,  weakness,  confusion,  fatal  incumbrance  at  the 
moment  of  attack.     Religion  finds  that  it  can  subsist 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  7I 

very  well  upon  the  spiritual  reliances  which  are  the 
result  of  the  organic  laws  of  the  individual.  It  asks 
no  more  than  the  rest  of  the  world  :  to  know  and 
understand  its  reason  for  being.  Every  branch  of 
knowledge  begins,  simultaneously  with  the  natural 
gesture  of  the  soul,  to  turn  interlopers  out  of  doors, 
and  write  above.  No  admittance  except  on  business. 

Then  Religion  must  rely,  first,  upon  the  individual, 
who  is  the  medium  between  knowledge  and  action, 
between  the  finite  and  the  infinite.  The  past  reaches 
the  present  in  him  :  the  present  proceeds  to  a  future, 
the  invisible  becomes  incarnated  in  him.  There  is  in 
fact  nothing  outside  of  the  Individual.  If  any  effect 
of  past  living  fails  to  extend  as  far  as  his  own  being,  it 
was  really  no  effect  at  all.  To  be  sure,  he  cannot  be 
conscious  of  the  whole  modification  which  has  resulted 
from  the  fact  that  other  people  lived  previous  to  him  ; 
but,  so  far  as  he  is  concerned,  the  past  is  the  extent  to 
which  Jie  has  been  modified.  And  there  is  practically 
as  much  God  as  he  contains  :  he  is  an  outline  on  the 
infinite.  What  is  beyond  does  not  exist  vitally  for  him, 
but  only  as  stellar  spaces  exist,  which  he  may  surmise 
to  be  peopled  or  unpeopled,  to  be  within  or  outside  of 
the  solar  system  ;  but  he  is  not  consciously  implicated. 
He  need  not  be  aware  of  the  extent  to  which  he  is 
modified  by  the  Divine  presence,  but,  in  reality,  all  the 
rest  of  God  is  absent.  The  creative  mind,  in  choosing 
to  occupy  the  organizations  it  has  conceived,  has  limited 
the  knowledge  of  Himself  to  each  and  all.  Also,  the 
individual  limits  the  existence  of  the  world  by  his  per- 
ceptions of  it.  There  is  nothing  beyond  the  phenomena 
which   he   embraces  and  apprehends.     It   is    true,  he 


73  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

cannot  detect  many  influences  of  nature  which  rush 
to  him  as  to  a  point  of  attraction  ;  but  while  they 
temper  him  they  cannot  surpass  his  extent  of  enter- 
taining them.  For  him,  there  is  no  weather,  nor  land- 
scape, nor  revolving  year .  beyond  his  physical  and 
mental  range.  He  creates  the  world  which  he  inhab- 
its.    All  the  rest  is  no  concern  of  his. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  Religion  appears  to  be  co- 
extensive with  the  contents  of  the  individual ;  for  he  is 
sacred.  No  peculiar  sanctity  invests  any  one  part  or 
tendency.  Nothing  short  of  the  whole  of  him  can  be 
a  divine  image,  an  expression  of  the  amount  of  Life 
that  is  arrested  by  him.  There  is  no  schism  in  the 
members  :  he  is  all  honorable  from  crown  to  feet,  and 
whatever  transpires  beneath  the  roof  which  body  and 
soul  build  for  mutual  convenience,  whatever  is  secreted 
from  the  world  by  his  minutest  pore,  becomes  in  him 
an  acknowledgment  of  God.  As  soon  as  beauty  of 
scenes  and  sounds  are  entangled  in  his  network  of 
nerves  they  fall  to  his  hunger  for  beauty  that  is  yet  to 
be  attained.  The  taste  that  trembles  on  his  tongue  in 
a  moment  of  satisfaction,  the  fact  that  conspires  with 
him  to  be  accounted  for,  and  the  use  he  finds  for  every 
thing,  become  his  reception  of  divine  revelation,  even 
if  no  phrases  of  adoration  pass  his  lips. 

But  if  they  are  sung  by  the  harmony  of  all  created 
things,  as  they  muster  to  his  organs  to  find  in  them  an 
orchestra  to  express  their  joy,  they  too  are  a  part  of  his 
personal  religion.  This  can  only  occur  in  fortunate 
moments,  when  confluent  streams  of  life  announce 
themselves,  or  natural  gladness  hurries  up  the  stairs  of 
rhythm  to  an  interview  with  God,  or  when  terror  and 


TPiE  American  opportunity.  73 

beauty  break  awe-stricken  into  the  soul.  But  these 
moments  cannot  be  imitated,  nor  stereotyped  for  use  in 
meeting-houses.  There  is  a  singing-bird  that  would 
pine  in  the  cage  of  a  liturgy,  one  that  seldom  alights 
on  the  limed  twig  of  stated  prayer.  Yet  the  hunt  is 
kept  up  the  most  vigorously  in  districts  where  the 
game  is  scarcest.     Is  it  worth  while.'* 

It  is  better  to  find  that  Religion  performs  her  state- 
liest worship  when  she  feels  herself  liberated  in  the 
sacredness  of  the  individual,  and  put  to  her  uses. 

She  must  rely,  then,  upon  what  he  contains.  It  fol- 
lows that  there  can  be  no  test  or  basis  of  certitude  out- 
side of  himself,  in  matters  of  the  moral  and  spiritual 
life.  His  attainment  is  the  last  court  of  appeal.  It  is 
so  wherever  he  attains  to  positive  facts  and  information 
in  any  department ;  but  in  every  other  one  excepting 
morals  and  his  sense  of  God,  he  can  rely  upon  external 
authority.  He  is  obliged  to  take  the  antipodes  for 
granted,  and  is  willing  to  let  Herschel  tell  him  what 
the  nebula  contains.  If  he  cannot  lead  Darwin  and 
Agassiz,  he  follows  gratefully,  and  gleans  as  much  of 
the  universe  as  his  mind  can  hold.  He  descends  a  shaft 
with  faith  in  the  safetj^-lamp  which  some  one  puts  into 
his  hand,  and  he  borrows  a  telescope  to  set  in  order 
those  choirs  of  "  young-eyed  cherubim"  who  crowd 
the  night.  Wherever  he  cannot  go  in  person,  he  risks 
going  by  proxy,  even  when  his  safety  and  health  are 
involved  ;  and  he  has  made  so  many  experiments  of 
this  kind  that  he  finds  trust  to  be  an  economy.  The 
bee  hives  honey  more  compactly  than  he  can,  and  the 
surgeon  ties  an  artery  so  that  the  life  is  stayed. 

But  even  of  trust  he  is  the  sole  criterion  ;  for  it  is  the 

4 


74  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

result  of  hi?  personal  experience.  If  he  trusts  another 
person,  it  must  be  on  some  good  ground  discovered  by 
himself.  He  may  or  may  not  consider  mere  relation- 
ship a  sufficient  ground,  but  whatever  gains  his  con- 
sideration becomes  his  sole  criterion. 

In  moral  and  spiritual  truth  no  relationship  suffices, 
no  traveller  can  report  any  news.  He  meets  all 
the  Marco  Polos  half  way  with  a  tale  as  sumptuous, 
as  strange  and  true.  The  plain  Yea  and  Nay  are  both 
hemispheres  settled  by  him  when  he  came  into  the 
world.  He  took  possession  in  the  name  of  the  original 
proprietor,  who  sent  him  out  to  colonize  and  improve. 
And  now  shall  anybody  undertake  to  sell  him  his  own 
food  and  spices,  raised  for  home  consumption  on  his 
own  farm,  and  the  fabrics  which  he  spins  against  the 
weather  ? 

He  finds  the  wild  crab  of  sincerity,  and  improves  it 
to  a  staple  fruit.  It  is  the  tree  of  knowledge  standing 
in  the  middle  of  his  garden.  His  eyes  are  opened. 
The  true  and  the  false,  the  pure  and  the  impure,  the 
straight  and  the  crooked,  the  just  and  the  unjust,  the 
tender  and  the  harsh,  all  clean  and  unclean  things  are 
named  by  him  as  they  defile. 

He  can  beg  or  borrow  other  kinds  of  knowledge,  but 
nothing  short  of  the  man  himself  can  purchase  a  beati- 
tude. How  plain  this  ought  to  be  to  the  emaciated 
crowds  who  watch  some  pool's  mouth  to  move  for 
them.  They  cannot  step  into  a  text  for  healing. 
Health  is  theirs  for  the  choosing,  but  if  they  choose  a 
text,  the  virtue  still  remains  outside. 

It  is  plain  that  somebody  has  been  so  certain  of  truth 
that  a  text  transpired  in  consequence.     But  if  another 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  75 

person  thinks  to  pick  up  moral  certitude  with  the  text 
that  lies  before  him,  he  will  vainly  peel  its  shadow 
from  the  ground.  He  cannot  even  be  certain  that 
another  one  was  certain ;  but  only  certain  that  he 
thought  he  was.  For  all  texts  are  merely  assumptions 
of  past  certainties,  till  the  moment  when  they  become 
superfluous ;  and  that  is  when  the  eternal  certitude 
repeats  itself  in  the  individual.  For  it  is  the  evolution 
of  personal  life,  and  not  the  attainment  of  a  fact,  thought 
or  feeling. 

Every  individual  inherits  a  certain  amount  of  moral 
culture,  and  if  he  comes  into  life  by  fortunate  descent 
he  may  begin  where  centuries  leave  off.  But  he  does 
not  begin  until  the  new  circumstances  force  him  into 
independence,  whither  he  betakes  himself  with  all  his 
heir-looms.  Previous  to  that,  perhaps,  he  nurses 
himself  in  the  family  chair  and  reads  over  the 
ancient  will.  That  is  not  virtue,  but  a  branch  of 
archaeology. 

Boys  and  girls  come  to  Sunday  Schools  prepared  to 
repeat  chapters  of  holy  writ,  by  which  it  is  expected 
that  manhood  and  womanhood  will  be  inculcated. 
Can  they  ever  be  in  that  way  ?  There  was  a  time  when 
the  Republic  grew  heroic  without  such  mechanism. 
Names  of  superior  dignit}^  in  all  nations  ought  to  sug- 
gest to  us  that  virtue  is  extorted  by  the  business  of  the 
week.  A  vague  sentiment  of  respect  towards  the 
record  of  past  greatness  cannot  convince  a  living  soul 
that  it  is  criterion  and  source  of  greatness  yet  to  come. 
That  secret  lies  in  Monday,  when  fidelity  is  exacted, 
and  the  invisible  record  picks  up  the  homeliest  blocks 
to   spell   itself  legibly  all  along  the  week,  before  the 


yb  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

impertinent  catechism  claims  memory  again,  and  puts 
the  living  Gospel  by. 

Does  anybody  deny  the  existence  of  this  invisible 
record  ?  Whence,  then,  came  the  w^ritten  one  ?  Truly 
it  seems  as  if  we  thought  that  'earth  achieved  nothing 
till  it  had  been  written  down.  Millions  of  divine 
incarnations  do  not  succeed  in  achieving  so  much  as 
an  epitaph.  But  the  family  brain-cells  frame  some  fit 
acknowledgment. 

*'  Do  thy  good  in  love  of  goodness  purely! 
That  commit  to  every  vein  ; 
Through  the  children  if  it  runneth  poorly, 
For  some  grandchild  'twill  remain." 

We  suspect  that  we  can  be  deluged  with  stories  of 
brave  men  who  remembered  appropriate  texts  in  criti- 
cal moments,  out  of  Homer,  from  all  poets  to  the  Bible, 
and  thence  to  the  latest  lyric  which  some  deed  inspired. 
Men  are  simple  enough  to  declare  sometimes  that  the 
words  which  fitted  like  a  rhyme  to  their  action  were 
its  parent  and  supporter.  A  more  rational  explanation 
shifts  the  paternity  to  the  action.  The  words  came 
thronging  into  the  inspiration  which  had  already 
approached  and  thrown  wide  open  the  doors  of  life. 
The  dull  text  glowed  as  the  thrilling  moment  found 
it  in  the  way.  Before  one  has  time  to  remember  "  It 
is  written,  Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God," 
the  temptation  must  have  lost  its  power.  Else  how 
abandoned  to  inexplicable  wrath  must  the  men  and 
women  have  been  who  had  to  find  their  way  into  brave 
living  before  Moses  was  set  adrift  in  the  papyrus,  or 
any  man  had  borrowed  the  reed  to  record  one  natural 
commandment. 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  *J*J 

"  Let  us  consider,"  says  Mr.  Newman,  the  English 
Catholic,  "  how  differently  young  and  old  are  affected 
by  the  words  of  some  classic  author,  such  as  Homer 
or  Horace.  Passages,  which  to  a  boy  are  but  rhetori- 
cal commonplaces,  neither  better  nor  worse  than  a 
hundred  others  which  any  clever  writer  might  supply, 
which  he  gets  by  heart  and  thinks  very  fine,  and  imi- 
tates, as  he  thinks,  successfully,  in  his  own  flowing 
versification,  at  length  come  home  to  him,  when  long 
years  have  passed,  and  he  has  had  experience  of  life, 
and  pierce  him,  as  if  he  had  never  before  known  them, 
with  their  sad  earnestness  and  vivid  exactness.  Then 
he  comes  to  understand  how  it  is  that  lines,  the  birth 
of  some  chance  morning  or  evening  at  an  Ionian  festi- 
val, or  among  the  Sabine  hills,  have  lasted  generation 
after  generation,  for  thousands  of  years,  with  a  power 
over  the  mind,  and  a  charm,  which  the  current  litera- 
ture of  his  own  day,  with  all  its  obvious  advantages,  is 
utterly  unable  to  rival.  Perhaps  this  is  the  reason  of 
the  mediaeval  opinion  about  Virgil,  as  if  a  prophet  or 
magician  ;  his  single  words  and  phrases,  his  pathetic 
half  lines,  giving  utterance,  as  the  voice  of  Nature  her- 
self, to  that  pain  and  weariness,  yet  hope  of  better 
things,  which  is  the  experience  of  her  children  in  every 
time."  * 

This  is  an  excellent  statement  of  the  reflex  action  of 
personal  experience  upon  sacred  books.  In  the  revela- 
tion of  life  men  gather  maturity  of  thought  and  depth 
of  emotion.  Riveted  to  the  spot  of  their  destiny  they 
stand,  while  the   day  turns  for  them  the  pages   of  a 

*  Grammar  of  Assent :  page  76,  Am.  Ed. 


78  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

book,  and  lets  the  light  fall  upon  the  texts  of  joy, 
terror  and  pity  ;  the  sudden  claim  of  brotherhood,  the 
warning  of  a  vitiated  temper,  the  exigencies  of  love 
and  duty,  flash  out  of  moments  of  living,  like  electric 
sparks,  into  the  soul,  and  find  their  equilibrium  in  per- 
sonal conviction.  Then  new  sentences  might  replace 
the  old  ones  that  sprung  from  the  sincerity  of  similar 
moments.  But  if  the  old  ones  are  met  by  the  soul,  as 
it  travels  with  a  fresh  morning  behind  it,  the  light  that 
falls  upon  their  faces  thrills  and  surprises,  and  it  runs 
forward  to  greet  them.  Certainly,  they  must  be  mem- 
bers of  its  family,  whose  absence  it  had  not  noted  ; 
kindred,  at  least,  who  left  the  old  homestead  before 
they  grew  familiar. 

When  Scriptures  glow,  it  is  with  the  same  life  that 
gave  them  birth :  they  are  indebted  to  us,  not  we  to 
them.  Virgil  is  not  alone  in  profiting  by  the  suc- 
cess of  these  magical  moments ;  they  promote  all 
their  kindred  apostles  to  the  assumption  of  possessing 
extraordinary  qualities. 

But  Scriptures  share  this  advantage  with  every 
object  of  nature  and  art  that  receives  the  tardy  investi- 
ture of  our  own  beauty  or  grandeur.  When  we  have 
an  eye  for  a  landscape,  there  is  one  :  previously,  we 
notice  without  emotion  an  assemblage  of  stones  and 
trees.  If  Orpheus  sits  in  the  midst,  they  come  to 
listen  with  attitudes  and  relations  grouped  around  the 
vibrations  of  his  lyre. 

Our  sum  of  vitality  creates  the  quality  of  terror  as 
well  as  of  delight.  The  child  walks  unconsciously 
as  a  somnambulist  around  the  parapet,  while  the 
mother  clings  to  every  movement,  pale  and  speechless 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  79 

as  Athens  expecting  the  cry  of  Agamemnon's  murder. 
Our  perception  of  the  most  trivial  thing  is  just  as  deep 
as  we  are. 

Nature  holds  an  open  book,  and  invites  us  all  to  try 
her  sortes^  and  many  a  comforting  coincidence  is  found. 
But  w^hen  the  spider  swings  for  the  third  time,  and 
fastens  the  thread  of  his  little  homily  to  the  wall,  the 
bolder  heart  of  a  Bruce  must  be  at  hand  to  turn  it  into 
songful  deeds. 

It  is  pertinent  to  ask  if  this  private  consciousness  of 
a  criterion  of  truth  has  been  waiting  till  America 
furnished  its  social  and  political  opportunity.  The 
theologian  objects  that  an  organic  law  of  the  indi- 
vidual ought  always  to  have  been  as  peremptory  as 
seeing  and  hearing,  both  of  which  men  have  done  for 
themselves  from  the  beginning.  Hardly  ;  we  still  see 
with  others*  eyes,  and  it  is  an  American  failing  to 
hear  by  one  vast  organ,  called  popular  opinion,  whose 
tympanum  is  vigorously  beaten  by  fetich-masters  of 
all  creeds.  But  the  objector  forgets  how  much  more 
rapidly  bodies  have  developed  than  souls  ;  and  Nature 
has  served  the  inner  senses  latest  of  all  her  guests. 
Their  scramble  for  food  began  at  the  mouth.  Not  till 
that  is  fully  occupied  do  higher  cravings  vex  mankind 
in  moments  of  leisure  from  hunger. 

Men  will  not  seek  and  appropriate  truths  till  they 
are  felt  to  be  worth  the  while  ;  especially  if  they  have 
not  yet  been  brought  within  the  daily  necessities. 
They  may  belong  to  the  soul  by  inherent  right  and 
constitution,  still  they  will  remain  only  a  latent  tend- 
ency, and  seem  as  strange  as  foreign  products,  till  a 
demand  for  them  springs  up.     While   men   can  get 


8o  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

along  pretty  well  without,  no  trouble  will  be  taken 
to  seek  and  to  procure  them.  But  as  soon  as  by 
chance,  or  by  the  reiterated  assurances  of  some  soul 
who  makes  the  planet  and  the  year  adventurous,  or  by 
the  pressure  exercised  by  accumulating  knowledge  and 
perceptions  of  life,  men  begin  to  feel  that  they  can 
be  enriched,  greatly  improved  in  comfort,  simplified 
in  living,  by  these  far  things,  they  are  discovered  to  be 
near  and  accessible.  The  distance  was  nothing  but 
disuse. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  century,  Humboldt  carried 
to  Europe  the  first  specimens  of  Peruvian  guano,  with 
accounts  of  the  profits  derived  from  its  use  by  the 
natives  of  Peru  and  China.  But  the  industrial  world 
waited  thirty  years,  supinely  indifferent ;  till  at  length 
a  few  essays  of  the  new  fertilizer  were  made,  followed 
by  another  interim  of  neglect  which  lasted  ten  years. 
Then  suddenly  433  vessels  carried  it  to  every  quarter 
of  the  globe.  In  the  next  year  twenty-six  million 
dollars  worth  of  it  was  transported,  and  three  hundred 
million  dollars  worth  of  it  during  the  first  twenty 
years  of  the  traflSc. 

The  so  called  "  Mammoth-Coasts  "  of  Siberia  retain, 
with  a  grasp  of  iron,  deposits  of  ivory  which  were 
known  to  Pliny  and  Theophrastus,  but  which  came 
into  use  only  about  two  hundred  years  ago,  and  have 
furnished,  since  that  beginning,  scarcely  40,000  pounds 
of  ivory  a  year :  not  enough  to  help  the  children  of 
a  single  country  cut  their  teeth.  Yet  a  fresh  island, 
or  an  unexplored  stretch  of  coast,  yields  new  quarries 
of  the  durable  material,  and  becomes  an  enamelled  in- 
vitation to  mankind  to  come  and  help  itself,  for  it  is 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  8 1 

inexhaustible.  It  Is  said  that  a  solitary  ivory  hunter 
can  procure  20,000  pounds  of  it  in  a  year. 

Truths  do  not  create  new  wants,  but  provide  more 
portable  and  exact  methods  of  meeting  the  old  ones. 

Such  a  truth,  for  homeliness,  practicality,  daily  con- 
venience for  use  and  beauty,  is  the  absolute  independ- 
ence and  authority  of  the  conscience.  One  would 
think  it  must  have  been  self-evident  from  the  begin- 
ning, if  it  were  really  embedded  in  the  primitive 
substance  of  the  soul.  But  generations  must  develop  it 
into  working  consciousness.  It  is  not  enough  that  a 
few  explorers  make  it  known.  Their  recommenda- 
tion is  not  heeded,  while  the  majority  get  along  pretty 
well  upon  the  authority  of  books,  texts  and  codes  of 
manners,  results  of  successive  stages  of  this  very  inde- 
pendence of  moral  and  spiritual  insight.  The  grand 
gesture  is  not  yet  freed  into  the  daily  life.  As  soon  as 
men  begin  to  use  their  new  advantages,  they  wonder 
how  life  was  carried  on  without  them,  and  cannot  be 
induced  to  recur  to  the  old  methods,  because  it  is  now 
plain  how  much  slaving  and  wasting  they  involved. 
Coal,  steam,  the  magnetic  circuit,  all  primitive  pos- 
sibilities, are  in  the  world  and  in  the  soul,  lying  all 
ready  to  be  used,  disturbing  men  for  centuries  with 
unquiet  dreams  in  which  they  hear  the  vague,  tumult- 
uous cry,  "  Come,  use  me."  By  and  by  the  souls 
wake  up,  and  say  gladly,  "  Come,  be  used." 

Propositions  that  are  styled  self-evident,  like  the 
"blazing  ubiquities"  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, are  not  so  till  they  become  evident  to  ourselves. 
But  then  they  exist  nowhere  else.  Previous  to  that, 
we  may  accede  to  them  as  abstractions,  but  they  are 

4* 


82  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

not  evident  till  they  become  essential  to  our  life  and 
happiness.  The  beatitudes  are  as  distant  as  the 
guano  islands,  as  superfluous  as  the  whiteness  of  a 
buried  tusk,  till  the  day's  comfort  calls  for  them. 
Then  we  justify  them,  and  become  in  person  the  only 
authorization  they  can  ever  acquire.  Before  that, 
miracles  could  not  annex  them  to  our  life,  or  be  their 
guarantee. 

Bodies  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  that  were  dipped 
in  natron  till  they  became  mummified,  are  thrust  by 
modern  stokers  underneath  the  boilers  that  ply  along 
the  Nile.  The  brains  are  out  of  these  dead  texts  with 
which  the  Copt  gets  up  his  steam.  Our  Scripture 
compends  and  catechisms  might  also  be  of  some  use 
upon  the  rail,  if  they  made  up  in  bitumen  for  their 
lack  of  vitality. 

This  original  position  of  the  individual  cannot  ex- 
empt him  from  the  advantages  of  being  cultivated  any 
more  than  it  can  detach  him  from  the  past.  His 
soul  had  ancestors  who  were  not  of  his  family  connec- 
tion, and  by  enlarging  his  acquaintance  with  them  he 
restores  them  to  the  family  line.  But  the  characters 
in  Plutarch  and  in  the  Bible  do  not  surrender  to  him 
their  trophies  :  at  the  most,  they  can  only  count  upon 
depriving  him  of  sleep. 

"  Care  not  to  strip  the  dead 
Of  his  sad  ornament, — 
His  myrrh,  and  wine,  and  rings, 
His  sheet  of  lead. 
And  trophies  buried : 

Go,  get  them  where  he  earned  them  when  alive; 
As  resolutely  dig  or  dive." 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  83 

This  is  the  lesson  of  every  Bible.  If  any  other  is 
forced  upon  it,  the  individual  has  to  be  defrauded  for 
this  spurious  aggrandizement  of  a  book.  It  stands  in 
the  line  of  every  man's  culture  to  surrender  to  him  all 
private  claims  of  excellence  as  ftist  as  he  detects  them  : 
they  are  jewels  that  belong  to  his  modern  housekeep- 
ing, and  the  servant  cannot  be  above  his  lord  to  retain 
them. 

If  the  sacred  books  do  not  urge  a  man  to  instant 
flight  on  pain  of  being  enslaved,  they  do  not  serve 
him.  "  Fly  !  "  cries  the  beauty  at  the  postern,  "  I  hear 
the  steps  at  hand  —  I  would  not  have  even  thee  my 
captive.  In  some  distant  land  rescue  thyself  and  find 
me."  He  tears  himself  away  from  this  celebrated 
reality,  and  flies  from  the  door  that  opens  into  the 
unknown  night,  pursued  by  the  garden  perfumes  that 
cling  and  flatter,  almost  too  persuasive  against  the 
thrilling:  touch  of  obstacles  and  the  stir  of  a  cominsr 
dawn,  by  whose  light  he  finds  his  way  into  the  arms 
of  his  Ideal,  and  clasps  life  instead  of  narrative.  He 
generously  acknowledges  whatever  means  for  prose- 
cuting this  journey  he  has  borrowed  from  the  past,  be 
it  but  a  gourd  of  water  and  a  crust  in  his  pocket. 
But  no  gratitude  can  make  him  stay  ;  no  refreshment 
win  him  to  dependence  ;  no  lingering,  delightful  mem- 
ories unfasten  his  exploring  gear,  and  soothe  him  in 
the  old  lap  beneath  the  palms.  As  he  shoulders  man- 
fully through  the  dense  undergrowth  of  new  condi- 
tions, he  takes  up  the  old  refrain  of  sacred  independ- 
ence, the  only  bit  of  the  great  song  that  stays  by  him  : 
"  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said  by  them  of 
olden  time  —  but  /say  unto  thee."     //  who  is  this  I.'* 


84  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

Not  upstart  John  or  James,  but  every  man's  Person, 
old  as  God,  and  therefore  young  forever. 

This  I  is  the  sacred  individual  vv^ho  makes  implied 
truths  explicit,  and  finds  the  virtues  and  politics  of 
the  New  Testament  waiting  for  him  on  the  spot.  But 
whether  he  becomes  a  great  man,  or  is  formidable  only 
within  the  concrete  of  insignificance,  God  cannot  serve 
him  except  with  the  old  Spirit  that  served  all  sacred 
men.  So  close  is  He,  that  there  is  nothing  new. 
Shall  we  hear  conservatives  and  antiquarians  prate  of 
the  reverence  due  to  age? 

America  shall  yet  learn  to  pay  to  great  men  the 
purest  reverence  that  the  world  has  seen,  by  denying 
their  official  mediatorship  and  restoring  them  to  the 
privileges  of  the  human  Ideal.  Every  pedestal  will 
become  vacant,  and  a  pavement  of  equal  hearts  will 
vibrate  with  the  steps  of  poetry,  art,  and  conscience. 

The  great  spiritual  men  of  all  times  and  races 
differ  as  the  water-sheds  of  earth  do,  in  outline  and 
flora.  Between  the  meadow's  smile  and  the  austere 
summit,  various  contrasted  meridians  lie  stretched  along 
the  ample  slopes  and  emerge  from  the  many-fashioned 
chasms.  But  the  sky  around  and  above  holds  in 
solution  one  unchangeable  vapor  which  they  condense 
and  transmit.  And  people  must  learn  to  use  the 
water  of  their  locality  for  their  daily  needs,  just  where 
they  live.  The  day  passes  while  they  run  with  pails 
to  various  springs  of  hearsay.  Abana  and  Pharpar 
are  as  good  as  the  Jordan  to  those  who  are  not  upon 
the  Jordan's  banks,  and  quite  as  cleansing.  It  would 
be  very  simple  to  waste  time  in  venerating  tourists, 
and  the  specimens  of  sacred  waters  which  they  bring 


THE    AMERICAN    OPPORTUNITY.  S^ 

home.  Even  the  charm  of  distance  adheres  to  the 
brook  that  skirts  your  field,  for  loudly  as  any  traveller 
it  prattles  of  the  far  zone  where  the  sun's  ray  drew 
it  into  the  wind's  circuit  to  have  it  deposited  upon 
Wachusett  or  Meeting-House  Hill. 


IV. 

THE   DIVINE   IMMANENCE. 

THE  word  Immanence,  equivalent  to  In-being,  is 
more  convenient  than  Inspiration  to  express  the 
cooperation  of  a  divine  force  with  all  the  structures  of 
the  universe,  and  with  the  conscience  of  the  individual. 
It  is  more  exact,  because  it  implies  an  unbroken  con- 
tinuity of  Presence.  First,  we  claim  its  universality  in 
man,  as  preliminary  to  a  discussion  of  its  law. 

The  Eastern  Convent  of  Sittna  receives,  at  a  certain 
season  of  the  year,  a  stream  of  pilgrims,  drawn  from 
all  quarters  by  the  attraction  of  a  mysterious  chamber. 
It  is  a  room,  one  wall  of  which  is  the  outer  wall  of  the 
convent,  with  a  high  domed  ceiling,  and  destitute  of 
windows.  A  single  narrow  slit  admits  a  beam  of  light 
which  slants  upon  the  ceiling,  and  faintly  flickers  there 
with  the  movements  of  the  people  and  things  which 
happen  to  be  outside.  The  special  religious  observ- 
ance for  which  this  convent  is  famous  consists  in  pack- 
ing this  room  with  successive  relays  of  the  pilgrims, 
who  do  nothing  but  watch  the  ceiling.  The  darkness 
is  almost  total,  the  heat  iDrodlglous,  the  fragrance  hardly 
worth  speaking  of.  The  unwashed  devotees  crowd 
and  hustle  each  other,  and  give  vent  to  excited  cries  as 


THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  87 

often  as  a  shadow  flits  across  the  ceiling.  That  is  the 
miracle  for  which  they  are  waiting.  The  angle  that  is 
made  by  the  slit  is  concealed  by  priestly  ingenuity,  and 
the  ignorant  gazers  have  been  taught  for  centuries  to 
suppose  that  the  sudden  and  elusive  movements  on  the 
ceiling  are  supernatural  gestures  of  a  divine  power. 
All  that  they  can  learn  about  the  invisible  comes  shift- 
ing through  that  slit :  a  small  allowance,  but  perhaps 
as  much  as  any  minds  can  receive  which  have  not  been 
nurtured  in  the  light.  Wherever  the  theory  of  religion 
is  that  God  likes  to  creep  into  a  dark  room  through  a 
crevice,  the  mental  calibre  will  correspond.  Substitute 
for  this  the  true  theory  that  God  is  the  light,  the  weather, 
the  sun  and  rain,  the  men  and  women,  and  all  the  ani- 
mated open  country,  you  need  not  expect  to  recruit 
believers  out  of  the  dark  chamber.  When  a  man  takes 
a  great  deal  of  trouble  and  travels  many  miles  in  order 
to  suffocate  in  a  close  and  fetid  space,  you  must  wait 
till  the  effect  becomes  insupportable  to  human  nature, 
which  by  that  time  may  be  willing  to  use  the  eyes,  the 
ears  and  the  lungs  that  God  has  given  to  it. 

I  presume  that  the  most  popular  crevice,  towards 
which  the  greatest  number  of  sincere  human  beings  is 
struggling  to  get  a  glimpse  of  God,  is  the  doctrine  that 
He  has  moments  of  special  inspiration,  and  has  always 
preferred  to  manifest  himself  at  intervals,  to  speak 
with  isolated  authority  through  a  church,  a  tradition,  a 
book,  an  occasional  prophet,  an  exceptional  circum- 
stance, a  particular  providence.  What  a  mob  of  every 
generation  rushes  out  of  the  universe,  where  there  is 
free  play  for  every  limb  and  sense,  and  jams  itself  into 
this  close  and  covered  passage,  till  the  pressure  becomes 


S8  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

SO  great  that  the  whole  mass  of  living  beings  stands 
packed,  and  hardly  one  has  a  chance  to  break  loose 
and  discover  that  the  passage  leads  nowhere,  in  fact, 
stops  abruptly  at  a  dead  wall.  The  ingenuity  that  is 
wasted,  by  guides  and  teachers,  to  make  this  doctrine 
plausible,  and  to  repair  the  damages  done  from  time  to 
time  by  pure  investigation,  reminds  me  of  the  strata- 
gems of  the  Africans  when  they  meditate  a  grand  bat- 
tue of  wild  animals.  Two  lines  are  made,  a  mile  or 
more  in  length,  frank  and  open  enough  at  one  end,  but 
gradually  converging  into  a  palisaded  paddock  with  a 
pit ;  these  lines  are  fortified  with  interlacing  branches, 
fallen  trees  and  brushwood,  so  that  it  w^ould  be  difficult 
to  find  or  force  a  gap.  When  the  whole  arrangement 
is  as  involved  and  bristling  as  a  theological  argument, 
the  driving  begins.  The  natives,  scattered  over  the 
country,  beat  every  grove  and  thicket,  and  slowly  force 
the  roused  animals  towards  the  tunnel.  There  is  a 
howling  native  watching  at  every  weak  point  of  the 
line,  as  the  mingled  horde  comes  trampling  and  rush- 
ing in.  Cunning  and  strength  will  not  avail,  natu- 
ral reluctance  at  being  impounded  yields  to  pressure. 
The  silly  giraffe,  the  shy  antelope,  the  doubling  stag, 
the  sagacious  elephant,  all  go  over  together  into  a  j^ro- 
miscuous  heap  of  misplaced  confidence.  By  the  time 
the  elephant  has  discovered  that  he  would  have  con- 
sulted his  welfare  better  by  remaining  in  the  open 
country,  it  is  too  late  to  return  there.  So  do  many 
excellent  intelligences  impress  us  as  being  victims  of 
well  prepared  doctrinal  devices,  and  to  be  much  larger 
by  nature  than  the  place  into  which  they  have  been 
driven  or  insensibly  beguiled. 


THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  89 

Consider  how  it  must  narrow  and  hamper  a  mind  to 
grow  up  with,  or  to  have  forced  upon  it,  the  notion 
that  the  Infinite  Soul  is  Hstening,  or  waiting,  or  deHver- 
ing  himself,  at  a  few  crevices,  before  which  humanity 
must  assemble.  The  common  education  of  the  people, 
in  all  classes,  lecture-rooms  and  pulpits,  ought  to  throw 
wide  open  the  idea  that  God  is  equivalent  to  the  whole 
of  Life,  the  whole  of  History,  the  whole  of  Science 
and  Religion  ;  that  he  is  an  immeasurable  Presence, 
holding  the  roots  of  every  sweet  or  noxious  thing,  with 
a  growth  that  has  an  immense  range  from  the  violet  to 
the  Mariposa  cedar,  and  an  immediate  purpose  in  the 
nettle,  the  white-weed,  the  hay  and  corn,  the  orchard 
and  the  vine  ;  that  men  too,  like  his  other  growths, 
exist  from  his  immediate  intentions,  and  that  every 
temper  sounds  a  note  in  the  swelling  harmony,  while 
every  soul  is  visited  by  the  daily  tides  of  his  Moral 
Law.  Mankind  is  like  a  coast,  say  the  Atlantic,  whose 
beaches  and  indentations  and  shallow  creeks,  and  Bays 
of  Fundy  with  deep  and  sudden  influxes  of  ocean, 
measure  altogether  many  thousands  of  miles,  every 
inch  of  which  is  visited  by  the  same  element  that  rolls 
and  whitens  at  the  foot  of  cliffs,  and  overruns  the  sand 
bars ;  and  there  is  not  the  smallest  pebble  which  does 
not  chime  with  the  hugest  boulder  in  delivering  that 
sound,  when  waters  reach  them,  which  the  sailors  call 
the  rote  of  the  shore.  It  makes  an  unbroken  murmur, 
in  various  keys,  from  the  Grand  Menan  to  the  coral  reefs 
of  Florida.  And  the  history  of  mankind  is  like  it,  a 
continuous  sounding  of  the  ripples  of  the  divine  pres- 
ence, all  of  it  sacred,  none  of  it  profane.  When  the 
tide  is  out,  there  is  still  depth  enough  for  the  whaler 


^O  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

to  pursue  his  prey,  and  for  the  whale  to  gather  his ;  in 
the  meantime,  the  sand-piper  goes  balancing  after  the 
worms  in  the  low  banks,  the  heron  stands  knee-deep 
in  the  warm  shallows,  waiting  for  his  fish,  and  the 
eagle  does  not  float  so  high  that  he  cannot  see  the 
turning  of  a  fin  in  the  sunlight.  Bo3^s  and  men  on 
the  rocks  throw  baits  to  the  great  element,  and  gather 
perhaps  more  by  the  eye  and  the  soul  than  their  slen- 
der hooks  could  ever  land.  Thus  all  is  feeding  and  all 
is  fed :  all  is  sei*viceable,  and  all  performs  its  service. 
And  the  heart  of  God  beats  in  the  slender  pulsation  of 
the  jelly-fish,  and  in  the  child's  imagination  who  turns 
it  over  with  a  stick  and  wonders  why  it  was  made. 
Thus  it  has  been  from  the  beginning :  Life  itself  an 
unbroken  book  of  Revelation,  whose  age  may  be 
counted  by  millions  of  years,  and  cannot  be  forced  into 
the  legs  and  arms  of  our  short,  threadbare  chronology  ; 
a  Life  of  unceasing  giving  and  receiving,  wonder  and 
satisfaction,  partial  discomforts  and  complete  delights, 
secrets  that  remain  inscrutable  long  enough  to  compel 
solution,  problems  of  human  destiny  and  of  the  divine 
will  that  are  continually  betraying  the  intellect  into  the 
discovery  that  nothing  is  special,  nothing  exceptional, 
nothing  common  or  unclean.  God  himself,  year  in 
and  year  out,  is  so  religious  in  that  infinite  and  com- 
plex appearance  called  the  universe,  so  incessantly  in 
earnest,  never  absent,  never  nodding,  always  throb- 
bing with  a  purpose,  so  consistent  too,  and  uniform  in 
every  action  that  he  undertakes,  always  using  the  same 
elements  over  and  over  again  in  nature,  and  always 
appealing  to  man  through  the  moral  senses  that  are  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever,  that   it  is  impossi- 


THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  9I 

ble  for  us  to  put  our  finger  on  a  moment  of  the  whole 
and  say,  Here  was  God  manifest,  and  on  another  and 
say,  Here  he  was  not  so  manifest,  since  it  is  all  mani- 
festation, a  vesture  woven  without  seam  from  top  to 
bottom,  stretching  from  trilobite  to  prophet,  farther 
than  that  even,  from  the  first  movement  that  made  a 
separation  into  worlds  and  sky,  to  the  last  impulse 
that  some  heavenly  soul  had  to  select  a  divine  pur- 
pose, and  live  or  die  by  it. 

It  is  true  that  for  convenience  of  reference  we  divide 
the  doings  of  a  creative  mind  into  different  provinces 
and  studies.  We  try  to  observe  what  its  method  is  in 
making  the  soil,  the  diamond,  the  metal,  the  gas  ;  what 
relation  exists  between  the  elements  and  forces  of  na- 
ture ;  how  history  has  been  modified  by  the  character- 
istics of  different  tribes  of  people,  and  by  what  law 
human  intelligence  has  become  developed.  We  see 
that  the  mind  itself  is  capable  of  very  dissimilar  opera- 
tions :  one  man  invents  a  steam-plough,  or  a  cotton-gin, 
another  composes  a  poem  or  a  symphony.  One  writes 
a  lyric  like  the  Marseillaise,  that  runs  into  the  blood  of 
nations,  like  drum-beats,  to  climb  in  the  flush  of  patri- 
otism to  the  cheek ;  another  soul  breathes  the  Psalm 
of  filial  confidence,  and  wakes  our  own  if  it  sleeps,  a 
mother's  hand  to  us  in  the  morning.  And  another 
pours  out  God's  own  indignation  at  superstitions,  idol- 
atries, wickedness  in  high  places ;  he  prophesies  that  a 
better  time  is  coming,  and  bids  men  clear  the  way. 
Many  men  have  had  nothing  but  their  blood  to  give, — 
no  song,  no  chapter,  no  invention.  Nero  caught  some 
Christians,  and,  after  swathing  them  in  tarred  cotton, 
set  them  on  fire  to  light  his  garden  during  a   feast. 


g2  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

The  Illumination  went  farther  than  his  garden.  God 
never  yet  kindled  a  fagot,  and  made  a  costl}-  lamp  of 
a  man,  to  prolong  epochs  of  darkness.  His  purpose 
is  light,  and  that  interprets  all  his  acts.  But  when 
Kepler  travailed  in  the  silent  midnight  to  bring  the  law 
of  the  planetary  distances  into  the  world,  he  was  as 
near  to  God  as  John  Huss  or  John  Brown.  The 
asfonies  of  faithful  souls  are  God's  successes:  all  in- 
ventors  who  starved  before  their  names  became  sweet 
morsels  in  men's  mouths,  all  unknown  singers  of  dear 
songs,  all  women  who  have  played  at  Providence,  all 
deaths  that  have  been  births,  all  crosses  that  have  lifted 
up  advantages  and  excellences,  have  been  sacred,  none 
special  and  exceptional,  none  of  them  profane.  God's 
Eternal  Power  and  Godhead  are  clearly  understood 
by  all  the  things  that  ever  have  been  made. 

And  we  are  discovering  every  day  that  the  things 
which  are  made  or  done,  notwithstanding  the  diversity 
that  ranges  through  all  natural  appearances  and  human 
action,  have  a  closer  relationship  than  we  suspected.  Is 
light  one  definite  thing,  Is  heat  another  thing  distinct 
from  light,  Is  electricity  another,  and  magnetism  still  one 
more  ?  We  have  already  got  far  on  the  road  to  show- 
ing that  all  these  are  only  modes  or  manifestations  of 
motion.  How  much  more  will  be  included?  Will 
the  obscure  processes  that  now  figure  under  the  phrases 
"nervous  fluid,"  "vital  force,"  "cerebral  action,"  be 
included  in  this  simplification?  We  cannot  tell;  but 
the  whole  tendency  is  to  trace  all  manifestations  of 
force  towards  some  central  agency,  and  to  accumulate 
the  proofs  of  the  divine  unity. 

So  there  does  not  appear,  at  first,  to  be  any  relation- 


THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  93 

ship  between  the  mental  process  that  utilizes  filth  of 
cities  or  the  waste  of  factories,  to  turn  refuse  into 
wheat-fields,  to  get  more  heat  out  of  coke,  and  color 
3ut  of  coal-tar,  and  work  out  of  the  surplus  steam,  and 
that  which  economizes  a  kingdom's  expenditure  of 
time  and  money,  teaches  deaf-mutes  to  communicate 
ideas,  reforms  a  criminal  and  adds  him  to  society,  pro- 
vides checks  for  infanticide,  opens  asylums  to  stop  the 
moral  rot  in  outcast  women,  and  gathers  up,  in  short, 
every  fragment  of  virtue  and  labor  that  used  to  be  car- 
ried off  and  wasted  through  the  common  sewer.  The 
moral  sense  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  these  processes :  a 
reluctance  to  see  either  steam  or  human  beings  used 
extravagantly  ;  an  instinct  for  saving,  applied  to  differ- 
ent products.  And  this  economy  pays  back  to  a  coun- 
try's vital  unity  what  it  drew  in  the  shape  of  conscience 
to  carry  on  its  operations. 

There  is,  of  course,  a  vast  difference  between  a  spin- 
ning-jenny and  an  overworked  and  underfed  seam- 
stress :  the  one  is  improved  to  save  mechanical  power, 
the  condition  of  the  other  is  ameliorated  to  preserve 
an  immortal  element.  So  a  greater  number  of  human 
feelings  become  implicated  in  the  efforts  to  save  it : 
personal  sympathy  is  excited,  indignation  at  the  tyr- 
anny of  low  employers,  and  reverence  for  woman- 
hood. But,  after  all,  the  root  of  both  economies  is  in 
the  simple  moral  calculation,  and  the  reluctance  of  the 
conscience  to  see  any  thing  run  to  waste.  This  moral 
feeling  may  be  very  low  in  a  number  of  people  who, 
by  temperament,  abound  in  sympathetic  impulses : 
their  eyes  will  run  to  pity,  but  their  hands  will  not 
bestir  themselves.     So  that  a  less  impressible  person, 


94  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

with  a  clearer  sense  of  justice  and  proportion,  will  be 
coldly  working  at  the  generous  tasks  which  they  neg- 
lect. A  moral  fitness,  therefore,  is  the  ground  of  rela- 
tionship between  all  improvements  of  the  physical  and 
spiritual  nature,  and  the  I'eason,  too,  why  so  many 
moral  dangers  are  averted  by  providing,  first,  clothes 
for  the  back,  to  keep  out  the  weather,  and  bread  for 
the  mouth,  to  create  a  genial  zone  within.  All  things 
depend  so  strictly  on  each  other,  because  they  come 
together  in  the  unity  of  God. 

How  is  it  when  we  enter  other  provinces  of  human 
thought  and  feeling  in  the  company  of  poets,  thinkers, 
and  artists  ?  Here  at  first  it  seems  as  if  we  could  rec- 
ognize some  essential  traits  of  divine  inspiration,  that 
set  these  men  apart  as  special  messengers  to  the  race, 
isolated  by  their  gift  from  common  humanity,  and  or- 
ganized to  be  peculiar  mouth-pieces  of  God.  The 
Scotch  peasant  who  drives  his  plough  through  a  tuft 
of  daisy,  or  dislodges  the  mouse  from  his  meadow- 
nest,  sees  what  Burns  saw,  but  the  seeing  cannot  be- 
come song.  He  can  only  go  on  ploughing,  we  say. 
But  he  can  do  more  than  that :  he  can  love  the  song ; 
his  heart  welcomed  it  as  soon  as  it  was  sung,  and 
treasured  it.  It  became  a  thing  of  joy  forever.  As 
often  as  he  j^loughs  up  daisies,  or  disturbs  the  field- 
mice,  or  wakes  to  new  labor  at  morning,  underneath 
the  "  lingering  star  with  lessening  ray  "  that  trembles 
with  the  thoughts  of  Mary  in  Heaven,  he  vindicates 
his  companionship  with  the  poet,  and  exercises  an 
essential  element  of  genius.  Conception  itself  has  its 
root  in  appreciation,  and  springs  from  the  audience 
which  it  addresses ;  the  common  earth  contributes  the 


THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  95 

qualities  that  are  transmuted  into  the  graceful  lily  and 
the  stately  tree.  And  human  nature  asserts  the  unity 
of  all  divine  immanence,  when  it  pays  the  tribute  of 
the  feelings  which  the  poet  claims.  For  the  soul  is 
not  merely  a  string  that  vibrates  to  the  touch  of  the 
musician,  and  would  be  mute  until  he  came.  But  he 
is  latent  in  all  souls,  otherwise  there  would  be  no  ears 
to  receive  his  revelation. 

What  is  fame  but  a  famous  element  recoo^nizins:  itself: 
the  ordinary  man  pays  homage  to  himself  full-grown. 
Nothing  in  this  world  would  be  produced,  if  there 
were  nothing  that  could  receive.  We  have  the  habit 
to  call  the  creative  element  an  active  one,  and  the  re- 
ceptive element  a  passive  one  ;  but  both,  in  fact,  are 
reproductive.  Love  sings  the  song  which  love  appre- 
ciates and  absorbs.  One  is  not  positive  and  one  nega- 
tive, but  the  concurrence  of  both  gives  birth  to  every 
excellent  and  noble  thing ;  and  I  think  that  the  gift  of 
appreciation  is  as  divine  as  the  distinction  of  being 
appreciated.  When  God's  unity  passes  through  the 
atmosphere  of  Time  and  Space,  it  becomes  separated 
into  these  two  attributes  which  are  continually  yearn- 
ing for  a  perfect  marriage,  to  return  to  the  felicity  of 
their  original  condition.  The  audiences  at  the  Globe 
and  Blackfriars'  Theatres,  of  London,  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  were  bone  and  muscle  of  Shakspeare.  They 
twain  became  one  flesh  in  the  lausrhters  that  recog-nized 
the  human  kind  in  Falstaff,  and  the  tears  that  dropped 
those  precious  ballots  to  elect  the  fidelity  of  Cordelia 
and  the  woe  of  Constance.  Shakspeare  was  alive  as 
long  as  he  fed  upon  the  English  nature  ;  the  same  in 
Athens,  L©ndon,  and  Boston,  yesterday  and  forever,  the 


96  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

perpetual  emphasis  and  reiteration  of  a  divine  motive 
in  the  hearts  of  men  and  w^omen.  God  has  only  half 
a  rapture  when  his  gifted  children  apprehend  and  set 
forth  the  subtle  analogies  of  wit  and  imagination  ;  they 
are  barren  till  all  his  other'  children,  who  are  gifted 
to  plight  troth  to  them,  love,  honor,  and  obey.  Then 
the  manifestation  of  genius  is  complete,  and  He  knows 
the  ecstasy  of  Creativeness.  The  result  declares  plain- 
ly that  the  Infinite  could  not  have  remained  alone,  in 
some  aboriginal  condition  of  unemanated  Spirit.  He 
was  solitary,  he  longed  to  set  himself  in  families.  And 
we,  by  virtue  of  the  same  intention,  are  members  of 
the  family  of  Shakspeare,  Beethoven,  Raphael,  Dante, 
Burns,  to  whom  we  give  as  much  as  we  receive. 

"  Always  when  an  art  predominates,"  says  Henri 
Taine,  "  the  contemporary  mind  contains  its  essential 
elements ;  whether,  as  in  the  arts  of  poetry  and  music, 
these  consist  of  ideas  or  of  sentiments ;  or,  as  in  sculp- 
ture and  painting,  they  consist  of  colors  or  of  forms. 
Everywhere  art  and  intelligence  encounter  each  other, 
and  this  is  why  the  first  expresses  the  second,  and  the 
second  produces  the  first." 

What  an  admirably  pregnant  little  sentence  is  the 
old  Latin  "  Laus  est  publica,"  that  is,  glory  is  public 
property :  a  famous  man  can  only  take  stock  with  his 
admirers,  and  the  interest  is  paid  to  all. 

Let  this  uniformity  of  creative  elements  be  illustrated 
from  another  quarter. 

How  Venus  and  Jupiter  sparkle  in  the  cloudless  sky, 
so  remote,  lifted  out  of  the  reach  of  every  thing  but 
fancy,  and  set  apart  to  be  beautiful,  in  a  kind  of  maid- 
enly reserve  that  penetrates  and  surprises.  '  They  are 


THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  97 

other  worlds,  but  are  they  not  also  different  ones? 
We  can  hardly  believe  that  they  have  any  thing  in 
common  with  this  clod  of  an  earth,  whose  March  mud 
and  July  dust  and  January  snow-drifts  seem  scarcely 
capable  of  transmitting  into  space  a  ray  serene.  Yet 
we  have  discovered,  by  the  application  of  analysis  to 
the  stellar  spectrum,  that  every  sparkle  in  the  nightly 
sky  announces  the  existence  of  a  ball  of  dirt,  consti- 
tuted, in  all  essential  elements,  like  our  own ;  that  the 
solar  atmosphere  itself  yields  the  traces  of  metals  that 
are  only  lying  cold  and  unfused  at  home  here,  and 
that  the  most  distant  star  in  the  constellation  of  Orion 
sends  down  to  us  the  report  that  it  is  made  like  all 
the  rest,  whose  splendors  and  whose  tints  are  various, 
while  all  their  grounds  are  the  same.  The  physical 
elements  exist  in  different  combinations,  as  they  flame 
upon  all  these  hearthstones  of  God ;  but  the  Sun  has 
no  fuel  that  the  earth  cannot  supply,  and  Sirius  and 
Jupiter  cannot  impose  upon  us  with  their  airs  of  supe- 
riority. There  are  nickel,  iron,  and  sulphur  in  the 
dazzle  of  the  meteor :  it  charms  and  then  drops  to  the 
bosom  of  an  earth  that  is  like  itself.  For  the  cause 
of  sameness  throughout  all  diversities  is  the  Unity  of 
God. 

Thus  it  has  been  found  that  the  sun*s  atmosphere 
holds  the  vapors  of  copper,  iron,  zinc,  nickel,  sodium, 
and  some  others,  and  certain  dark  lines  are  ascribed 
to  hydrogen.  The  fixed  star  Sirius,  another  sun,  has 
an  atmosphere  which  betrays  the  presence  of  iron, 
sodium,  magnesium  and  hydrogen.  Another  fixed 
star  adds  calcium  and  bismuth ;  another  supplements 
these  metals  with  tellurium,  antimony  and  mercury, 

5 


98  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

So  that  there  appears  to  be  a  variety  in  the  physical 
constitution  of  fixed  stars  and  planets,  but  all  of  their 
elements  are  already  known  to  the  Earth,  and  exist 
only  in  different  combinations  at  these  different  places 
of  the  universe.  The  spectral  analysis  has  not  yet 
penetrated  far  enough  into  the  secrets  of  space  to 
reveal  an  element  that  is  not  already  in  the  body  of 
the  earth  itself.  Should  it  ever  do  so,  it  will  be  a  hint 
to  subject  our  planet  to  a  closer  scrutiny.  The  vary- 
ing colors  of  the  stars  are  either  due  to  these  particu- 
lar combinations,  or  to  the  varieties  of  stellar  motions  ; 
but  color  is  the  planet's  masquerade.  Analysis  bids 
them  lift  their  hues,  and  numerous  earths  are  discov- 
ered waltzing  in  the  cosmic  order. 

And  when  we  enter  the  region  of  ideas  that  are 
reigned  over  by  the  Moral  Law,  we  find  the  same 
identity  prevailing  through  all  people,  all  periods  of 
history,  all  sacred  books,  and  the  whole  body  of  spir- 
itual literature.  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration 
of  God,  and  is  profitable,  say  some.  Others  prefer 
to  read  the  text  thus :  all  Scripture  that  is  given  by 
inspiration  of  God  is  profitable.  But  what  is  the 
difference?  There  can  be  no  profitable  Scripture 
without  God  :  and  all  that  is  profitable,  wherever  you 
may  find  it,  under  whatever  strangeness  of  language, 
guise  and  phrase,  must  have  been  inspired,  if  any  such 
trains  of  spiritual  thinking  are.  When  Socrates  says, 
*'  I  pray  thee,  O  God,  that  I  may  be  beautiful  within," 
and  David  says,  "  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  and 
renew  a  right  spirit  within  me,"  and  Jesus  says, 
''  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,"  what  is  the  differ- 
ence?     The   essential    element   is   the    same    in    all. 


THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  99 

When  the  old  Hindoo  declares,  a  thousand  years  be- 
fore Christ,  that  he  who  gives  alms  goes  and  stands 
on  the  highest  place  in  heaven,  and  that  the  kind 
mortal  is  greater  than  the  great  in  heaven,  we  recog- 
nize the  quarry  out  of  which  came  Christian  philan- 
thropy. God  is  that  quarry  :  how  old  it  is  ;  how  long 
it  has  supplied  the  world  with  spotless  marbles  !  "  Do 
good,  hoping  for  nothing  in  return,  and  ye  shall  be 
the  children  of  the  highest."  God  found  no  difficulty 
in  transmitting  the  golden  rule  by  monosyllables  of  the 
Chinese  sages  :  it  w^as  done  through  the  same  channel 
of  the  moral  sense  that  received  it. 

There  was  a  Syrian  slave  whose  life  in  Rome  began 
with  the  Christian  era  ;  and  while  Jesus  was  preach- 
ing love  to  man  in  the  villages  of  Judea,  the  heart  of 
Publius  Syrus  was  found  large  enough  to  contain  the 
same  doctrine  of  the  Father.  "  A5  alio  expectes^^ 
said  he,  "  alteri  quodfecerisT  —  You  may  expect  the 
treatment  which  you  render.  All  the  speeches  of 
mankind  have  breathed  this  expectation.  One  lan- 
guage enjoins  us  to  do  unto  others  as  we  would  that 
they  should  do  to  us ;  another  warns  us  not  to  inflict 
what  we  are  not  willing  to  experience,  and  another 
teaches  that  men  will  give  as  good  as  they  receive  ; 
and  Tsze  Kung  said,  "  What  I  do  not  wish  men  to  do 
to  me,  I  also  wish  not  to  do  to  them."  What  is  the 
difference?  Mutuality  is  the  self-interest  that  inspires 
them  all ;  a  Father's  longing  to  appear  through  the 
cooperation  of  his  children. 

While  Publius  Syrus  was  earning  the  title  of  Mimic 
Poet,  from  the  production  of  his  famous  Mimes  that 
exposed  the  foibles  and  passions  of  the  Roman  world. 


lOO  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

Jesus  was  treading  with  a  kindred  spirit  a  via  dolo- 
rosa. Publius  was  no  mimic  of  truth,  but  obeyed  an 
exigency  as  lofty  as  the  Judean  when  he  filled  his 
plays  with  texts  of  holiness.  His  characters  were 
"  fools  upon  heavenly  compulsion."  "  Do  you  not 
see,"  say's  Seneca,  "  how  the  benches  echo  whenever 
things  are  said  which  we  recognize  to  be  true,  as  we 
lend  them  the  authority  of  our  common  consent  .f*" 
And  he  adds,  recalling  portions  of  the  Scripture  ac- 
cording to  Publius,  "  We  hear  these  things,  cum  ictu 
quodam^  as  by  a  flash  ;  doubt  is  made  impossible,  nor 
can  any  man  ask,  Wherefore?  For  such  truth  is  its 
own  reason."  There  can  be  no  doubt  of  that. 
"The  ivhy  is  plain  as  way  to  parish  church." 

So  when  Seneca  sat  not  far  from  Caligula,  and  lis- 
tened to  the  terrible  rebuke,  Exeritur  opere  7zequitia^ 
71011  hicipit^  he  was  overhearing  the  Judean  phrase, 
"By  their  fruits  ye  shall  knowthein;"  for  God  can 
speak  all  languages  in  the  same  day.  And  as  the  bold 
speech  swept  over  the  theatre,  drowning  it  in  awe,  to 
break  against  imperial  wickedness,  perhaps  the  sage 
remembered  the  kindred  spirit  of  the  Delphian  oracle, 
which  said  to  Glaucus,  "  To  have  meditated  such  a 
crime  was  your  real  crime  against  the  god."  There 
is  no  more  difference  in  spiritual  truth  than  in  the 
waters  which  intercommunicate  below  the  surface  of 
the  earth,  and  rise  in  fountains  far  apart  to  many- 
lipped  mankind. 

Here  are  some  of  the  intuitions  of  Publius  Syrus, 
closely  matched  with  their  Christian  analogues :  — 

Amor  misceri  cum  timore  non  potest :  Perfect  love 
casteth  out  fear. 


THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  lOI 

Puras  Deus  non  flenas  aspicit  ma^tus :  A  man's 
life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  he 
possesseth. 

^uid  est  beneficium  dare?  Imitari  Deuin:  Who 
maketh  his  sun  to  rise,  &c. 

JBeneJicia  plura  accepit^  qui  scit  reddere:  It  is 
more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive. 

"When  you  hear  such  lines,"  says  Seneca,  "you 
need  no  advocate  to  plead  for  them  ;  they  touch  the 
corresponding  affections,  and  bid  nature  exercise  her 
own  authority."  Of  course :  "  Why  even  of  your- 
selves judge  ye  not  what  is  right?" 

All  ancient  literature  is  made  so  sacred  by  these 
primeval  texts  of  the  natural  conscience  that  our  page 
is  too  small  to  entertain  them  as  they  flock  to  the  gates 
of  memory.* 

When  Jesus  declared  that  his  truth  was  permanent 
because  it  was  identical  with  the  nature  of  God,  in 
such  texts  as  "I  and  my  Father  are  one,"  and 
"  Before  Abraham  was  I  am,"  he  did  not  say  a  more 
religious  thing  than  Frederic  Douglas,  when,  in  the 
depth  of  the  hatred  and  enmity  that  ahnost  over- 
whelmed the  little  minority  of  abolitionists,  he  said, 
"  One,  with  God,  is  a  majority."  They  took  up 
stones  to  cast  at  him,  but  he  passed  through  the  midst 
of  them,  and  is  as  safe  as  his  truth  to-day. 

All  fine  living  is  derived  from  this  consistency  of 
the  moral  sense,  which  can  afford  to  neglect  ethnic 
peculiarities.     We    are    sometimes    told    that   though 

*  See  an  admirable  paper  on  "  The  Sympathy  of  Reli- 
gions," by  T.  W.  Higginson,  in  the  "  Radical  "  for  February, 
1871. 


I02  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

identity  of  spiritual  utterance  can  be  traced  across 
every  zone,  stumbled  upon  in  unexpected  quarters, 
and  cradled  out  of  many  a  moraine  that  marks  past 
time,  it  became  expressive  of  a  perfect  life  only  in  one 
man.  We  might  allege  in  "reply,  that  one  swallow- 
does  not  make  a  summer ;  for  mankind  must  have 
ripened  by  some  noon  of  high  living  that  transpired 
in  every  year.  Heroic  texts  are  constructive  evidence 
of  heroic  behavior.  Nothing  shows  the  absence  of 
spiritual  perception  in  a  theologian  so  plainly  as  his 
surmise  that  all  the  sages  have  only  thrown  light 
upon  the  darkness  of  all  the  people,  and  that  God 
had  nothing  for  the  latter  but  fine  words.  On  such 
terms  mankind  would  be  still  contemporary  with  the 
mastodon.  Traces  of  high  thinking  presume  superior 
living.  The  papyrus  upon  the  breast  of  the  mummy 
testifies  that  immortality  was  brought  to  light  before 
the  gospel ;  but  it  never  tells  the  breast's  secret  of  its 
spotless  life.  The  bandaged  body  that  has  turned  to 
a  stick  of  bitumen  thrilled  with  plain  manhood  and 
womanhood,  pined  with  the  exigency  of  the  golden 
rule,  bore  the  stigmata  of  its  own  Calvary.  I  see 
the  fossils  of  past  virtue  in  a  mummy-pit,  because  I 
find  there  the  same  organization  into  which  our  virtue 
flows.  It  was  a  temple  of  God  :  the  brain  has  been 
scooped  out,  but  the  hollow  once  echoed  with  the 
invitation  to  be  just  and  pure. 

At  the  annual  celebrations  of  the  Eleusinian  Myste- 
ry, the  spectators  were  reminded  of  the  innocence  their 
souls  should  crave,  by  a  choir  of  little  children  clad 
in  white  garments  and  bearing  doves.  So  Jesus 
"  called  a  little  child  unto  him  and  set  him  in  the  midst 


THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  IO3 

of  them."  What  is  the  difference?  All  symbols  and 
gestures  have  announced  God's  identity :  and  never 
more  so  than  on  that  December  day,  w^hen  John 
Brown,  on  the  way  to  crucifixion,  laid  his  hand  upon 
the  little  child  of  the  slave-mother,  and  blessed  it. 
The  kingdom  of  heaven  has  been  the  Mystery-Play 
of  all  countries  and  ages,  and  its  unaltei'able  text  is 
the  soul  of  man. 

When  Jesus  challenged  his  sectarian  accusers  by 
offering  his  personal  character  as  the  test  of  his  doc- 
trine, he  said:  "  Which  of  you  convinceth  me  of  sin? 
and  if  I-  say  the  truth  why  do  ye  not  believe  me?" 
They  all  replied,  "  Say  we  not  well  that  thou  art  a 
Samaritan  and  hast  a  devil  ?  "  For  it  always  appears 
to  a  sectarian  that  a  man  is  an  infidel  as  soon  as  he 
proposes  faithfulness  to  God  instead  of  to  doctrines. 
But  when  Jesus  answered  :  "  I  have  not  a  devil,  but  I 
honor  my  Father :  if  I  honor  myself,  my  honor  is  noth- 
ing :  it  is  my  Father  that  honoreth  me  ;  of  whom  ye 
say  that  he  is  your  God :  and  if  I  should  say  I  know 
him  not,  I  shall  be  a  liar  like  unto  you,"  —  his  words 
were  no  more  sublime  with  confidence  in  the  eternity 
of  divine  truth,  than  those  which  Theodore  Parker 
uttered  in  the  faces  of  his  clerical  enemies  who  sup- 
ported the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill :  "  You  have  called  me 
Infidel.  Surely  I  differ  widely  enough  from  you  in 
my  theology.  But  there  is  one  thing  I  cannot  fail  to 
trust :  that  is  the  Infinite  God,  Father  of  the  white 
man,  Father  also  of  the  white  man's  slave.  I  should 
not  dare  violate  his  laws,  come  what  may  come, 
should  you?  Nay,  I  can  love  nothing  so  well  as  I 
love  my  God."      The  men  who  hated  him  still  live 


I04  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

to  see  what  his  longing  eyes  could  not  see,  how 
greatly  the  Father  has  honored  him  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  the  enactments  of  slavery ;  and  they  bear 
a  grudging  testimony,  when  it  is  safe  to  do  it,  to 
the  inspiration  of  his  moral  sense  which,  while  he 
lived  among  them,  they  always  hurried  to  revile.  No 
flowers  can  bloom  upon  his  grave  in  Florence  so 
handsome  and  fragrant  as  our  grateful  recollections 
of  the  manliness  that  clung  to  God.  While  other 
powerful  intelligences  went  overboard,  lashed  for 
safety  to  the  frail  spars  of  tradition,  and  drowned  upon 
their  fragments  of  the  wreck,  to  toss  about  for  perpet- 
ual warning,  he  chose  the  principle  of  life,  felt  the 
warm  clasp  of  God's  hand  through  the  whole  stormy 
period,  and  feels  it  warm  to-day. 

What  a  remarkable  thing  character  has  been  in  all 
ages  of  the  world.  It  is  another  kind  of  Revelation 
by  which  God  incarnates  his  sense  of  moral  weight, 
proportion  and  availability.  It  appears  in  men  who 
have  compelled  the  instincts  of  society  to  attend  to 
them ;  to  be  moulded  in  politics,  philanthropv,  the  sci- 
ence of  living ;  who  have  reigned  over  tracts  of  moral 
feeling,  from  a  neighborhood  to  a  State,  by  virtue  of 
some  effluence  that  is  not  purely  mental  or  spiritual, 
artistic  or  affectionate,  but  is  a  personality  rather  than 
a  quality.  Many  of  these  men  have  been  famous  above 
other  men  of  more  distinguished  attributes.  Gold  and 
diamonds  are  held  in  great  repute,  and  always  bring 
the  highest  price  in  the  market.  But  a  well-tempered 
bar  of  iron  does  all  the  work  of  mechanics,  war  and 
social  intercourse.  The  whole  world  runs  smoothly 
on  it.     Toughness,  evenness  of  grain,  uniformity  of 


THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE. 


105 


structure,  and  a  happy  temper,  have  been  the  advan- 
tage of  character  to  all  leaders  of  cliques,  parties, 
founders  of  social  and  religious  systems  ;  to  all  who 
have  established  codes  and  customs,  and  all  men  of 
weio^ht  in  ordinarv  affairs.  Isolated  gifts  are  articles 
of  luxury :  this  combination  of  mental  and  moral  force 
in  a  healthy  individual  is  the  daily  bread.  Every  age 
has  people  vv^ho  are  finer  in  some  respects  than  its  men 
of  character.  Louis  Kossuth  was  more  eloquent  than 
all  Hungary,  eloquent  as  her  wounds  were.  He  seemed 
to  be  the  tongue  in  every  one  of  them  to  plead  for 
liberty.  What  a  touch  of  inspiration  it  was  when  he 
said  in  Faneuil  Hall :  "  Cradle  of  Liberty?  I  do  not 
like  that  phrase,  —  it  savors  too  much  of  mortality  "  ! 
Liberty  is  indeed  as  old  as  God  ;  but  Kossuth,  who 
felt  the  truth,  was  not  the  man  to  give  it  to  his  country. 
He  was  not  merely  unfortunate  :  a  greater  thing  than 
his  ill-luck  disabled  him.  He  was  only  eloquent.  If 
Russia  had  not  interfered,  nor  Gorgey  betrayed,  muni- 
cipal usage  and  the  rights  of  man  would  have  left  him 
for  some  one  as  whole,  as  balanced,  as  composed  as 
Liberty  itself  is :  one,  perhaps,  far  inferior  in  senti- 
ment, and  destitute  of  imagination,  rounded  in  every 
part,  towering  in  none,  never  politic  but  always  sensi- 
ble ;  whose  earnestness  could  not  lapse  through  the 
silvery  sluices  of  his  speech,  but  could  lie  molten  in  an 
ardent  heart,  alloyed  with  judgment  and  long-suffering  : 
mobile  enough  not  to  impair  the  toughness  of  fibre 
that  alone  bears  continual  strains,  and  every  part  of 
the  nature  strengthened  with  such  homeliness  of  convic- 
tion and  plain  sense  of  right  as  Abraham  Lincoln  had. 
We  say  that  Kossuth  was  inspired.     If  we  use  that 

5* 


I06  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

word  to  express  a  capacity  to  receive  divine  impres- 
sions, or  to  indicate  by  it  only  the  felicity  of  an 
organization  that  can  absorb  all  nature,  literature  and 
life,  and  persuasively  reproduce  them,  why  not  apply 
the  same  word  to  this  commanding  excellence  of  char- 
acter, as  we  see  it  in  Moses,  Pythagoras,  Phocion, 
Washington,  Lincoln,  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  whose 
names  represent  a  quality  that  is  exercised  with  more 
or  less  notoriety  in  every  neighborhood  ?  Character  is 
a  plant  of  slow  growth,  because  it  draws  from  the  soil 
and  air  so  many  elements,  and  has  to  be  so  deliberate 
in  digesting  them.  A  spire  of  asparagus  will  shoot 
aloft  in  a  night.  The  sugar-cane  hurries  up  its  coveted 
sweetness  through  a  frail  pith  that  is  nothing  but  a  big 
straw.  But  teak  and  lignum-vitse,  the  oak  and  the 
cedar  have  out  so  many  roots  and  claim  toll  from  so 
many  quarters  towards  their  staunchness,  that  it  is 
some  time  before  they  make  a  show.  Then  we  go  to 
sea  in  them  -svith  confidence.  Character  is  a  wood  of 
dull  grain,  but  capable  of  taking  on  a  beautiful  polish, 
because  its  sap  runs  from  conscience,  intelligence,  feel- 
ing, the  higher  reason  and  the  common  sense  ;  from 
passion  too,  from  a  reserve  of  mighty  indignation,  from 
frankness  and  healthiness  of  all  the  impulses.  If  the 
divine  life  is  not  in  such  a  product,  that  is  at  once 
compact  and  manifold,  inflexible  and  workable,  a  rare 
concurrence  of  so  many  attributes  which  we  suppose  to 
belong  to  God,  where  can  the  divine  life  be  found  at 
all?  Not  more  in  the  intuitive  morals  of  Socrates  and 
Jesus,  not  more  in  those  lines  of  Shakspeare  that  are 
one  hearth  where  wit,  wisdom  and  fancy  all  warm 
themselves  together,  not  more  when  the  orchestra  of 


THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  IO7 

Beethoven  becomes  a  pinion  that  takes  us  up  from  the 
dwindling  earth  to  carry  us  off  into  a  pervasive  unity. 
The  doctrine  of  chance  accounts  for  nothing :  does  the 
doctrine  of  natural  combination  of  elements,  working 
by  their  independent  tendency,  account  for  any  thing? 
Not  for  a  single  blade  of  grass.  Elements  cooperate, 
and  various  effects  in  every  province  of  human  life  are 
observed.  But  what  sustains  cooperation,  what  pre- 
scribes the  laws  of  mutuality  and  keeps  a  soul  in  them, 
what  continually  systematizes  the  system?  James 
Watt,  in  his  grimy  workshop,  poring  over  abortive 
models  of  the  steam-engine,  is  a  less  striking  sight  than 
Michel  Angelo  on  his  back  frescoing  the  ceiling  of 
the  Sistine  Chapel,  or  Columbus  steering  for  the  New 
World  through  the  mist  of  mutiny,  or  Paul  on  Mars' 
Hill,  or  Jesus  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  or  Leonidas 
blocking  up  Thermopylae.  But  what  nourished  the  pa- 
tience and  conviction  of  all  these,  or  of  none  of  them  ? 
The  Presence  whose  invisible  things  are  clearly  seen, 
being  understood  by  the  things  that  are  made^  even 
his  eternal  power  and  Godhead. 

Immanence  is  in  all  intuitive  comprehension  of  all 
principles,  or  it  is  in  none.  It  exists  in  all  character- 
istic excellencies,  or  it  cannot  be  found  in  any.  If  you 
use  the  word  to  account  for  a  moral  utterance,  or  a 
prophetic  feeling,  you  involve  yourself  in  its  use  to 
account  for  all  human  genius  that  constructs,  restores, 
beautifies,  ennobles,  comforts  and  restrains.  The  moral 
law  runs  into  all  these  products  and  makes  them  relig- 
ious. They  are  all  texts  of  the  continual  Scripture. 
If  a  special  excellence  has  attracted  your  attention,  it 
does  not  follow  that  it  is  an  isolated  and  exceptional 


I08  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

thing.  It  is  part  of  the  beaming  of  the  day.  You  may 
put  up  your  hands  at  each  side  of  your  eyes  to  view 
it  better,  but  you  cannot  thus  make  a  division  in  the 
daylight :  it  is  all  around  the  fingers,  and  shows  them, 
too,  ruddy  with  their  blood.  • 

Must  not  the  Whole  at  every  moment  be  God  for  that 
moment?  Is  he  present  here  and  absent  there,  more 
interested  in  Jerusalem  than  in  Rome,  with  a  partiality 
for  one  man  above  another  ?  His  Moral  Law  makes  all 
men  of  one  blood,  and  inspires  the  whole  positiveness 
of  their  life. 

Let  us  escape  from  all  ordinances  and  enclosures, 
and  fasten  to  the  bosom  of  God  instead  of  to  the  faucet 
of  a  sect.  Let  us  trust  ourselves  in  the  open  weather 
that  makes  our  souls  robust  with  the  air  and  sunshine 
of  heaven. 


V. 

LAW  OF   THE   DIVINE   IMMANENCE. 

THE  individual  applies  directly  to  the  source  of  all 
power,  but  all  the  past  which  he  contains  is  in- 
volved in  this  application  and  helps  him  make  it, 
whether  the  direction  which  he  takes  be  science,  art, 
imagination,  morals,  or  religion.  He  may  become 
a  new  inventor  or  prophet,  but  not  the  same  as  if  he 
had  been  one  of  the  helpers  of  the  reign  of  Menes,  or 
as  if  Egyptian  civilization  had  not  become  extinct. 
He  begins  where  it  left  off,  even  if  he  only  reproduces 
one  of  its  lost  arts.  He  does  it  with  a  fresh  advantage, 
arid  his  position  is  readily  seen  in  some  fineness  of  de- 
tail or  added  convenience.  His  monolith  may  be  no 
larger,  but  steam  moves  it  for  him,  and  dispenses  with 
thousands  of  hands  and  hours  for  other  work.  His 
tools  cleave  no  more  exactly  than  the  long  row  of 
wooden  pegs  saturated  with  water ;  but  the  economy 
to  which  he  has  attained  is  seen  in  the  quantity  of 
manhood  that  is  saved  for  innumerable  kindred  labors. 
He  supplements  all  the  triumphs  of  culture  with  the 
sacredness  of  the  individual. 

But  what  is  meant  by  saying  that  the  individual  ap- 
plies directly  to  the  source  of  all  power .''  The  answer 
to  this  question  involves  points  that  must  be  carefully 


no  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

Stated  and  developed,  with  some  attention  to  the  value 
of  language,  that  no  terms  may  be  used  which  convey 
only  notions,  those  unballasted  and  pilotless  sailors  of 
the  air. 

As  scientific  subjects  were  -much  hampered  by  the 
predilection  of  the  Greeks  for  phrases,  so  this  subject 
of  Inspiration  is  obscured  by  notions  derived  from 
Biblical  language.  The  people  of  the  Bible  assume 
to  have  received  definite  messages  from  the  Lord.  So 
when  the  theologian  finds  distinct  sentences  thus  la- 
belled, whether  the  subject-matter  be  to  extirpate  a 
race  or  to  found  one,  to  overreach  a  Philistine,  or 
whatsoever  questionable  proceeding  may  have  fur- 
therance for  the  chosen  people  in  it,  these,  as  well  as 
more  manly  and  spiritual  utterances,  help  him  to  con- 
struct a  theory  that  the  Lord  declares  himself  by  voice, 
symbol  or  sign,  dream,  suggestion,  prophetic  message. 
We  have  insensibly  imbibed  the  habit  of  expecting 
communication  as  a  test  of  divine  activity :  definite 
statements,  or  irruptions  of  thinking  and  feeling,  must 
announce  that  it  is  at  hand.  But  in-breatJiing  is  sim- 
ply continuous  presence.  It  is  the  sustained  evolution 
of  all  natures  and  species  by  means  of  their  appropriate 
organization. 

This  is  not  a  doctrine  of  mere  pantheistic  imma- 
nence, which  leaves  us  irresponsible  products  of  a 
Force  or  a  Life,  or  reduces  us  to  be  terms  of  predesti- 
nation, incapable  of  independent  activity.  Our  organ- 
ization is  the  very  thing  that  interferes  to  prevent  this, 
by  announcing  a  conscience  ;  that  is,  we  become  con- 
scious of  a  sense  that  says  to  us,  /ought ;  /ought  not. 
The  in-breathing  nourishes  the  sense  of  a  responsible  /. 


LAW    OF    THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  Ill 

The  immanence  of  the  divine  Person  does  not  become 
individualized  till  this  sense  of  the  /is  reached.  Then 
the  I  saves  its  freedom,  and  increases  it  by  an  act 
which  at  first  might  seem  to  annihilate  it ;  that  is,  by 
admitting  all  of  the  divine  in-being  possible  :  and  this 
is  an  educable  process,  and  may  arrive  at  high  perfec- 
tion. The  individual  himself  is  the  result  of  the  con- 
scious and  unconscious  cooperation  of  the  past  with 
the  divine  presence,  and  when  he  appears  he  is  a  cen- 
tre where  this  process  meets  to  carry  forward  its  career. 
And  he  becomes  free  in  proportion  as  he  surrenders 
himself  to  this  divine  in-being,  which  is  the  only  per- 
fect freedom  because  it -is  coordinated  by  the  universal 
laws. 

The  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms  betray  the  fore- 
feeling  of  this  destiny.  It  can  be  detected  on  the  fron- 
tier between  both,  where  we  are  uncertain  if  an  object 
be  a  plant  or  an  animal.  The  object  solves  the  doubt 
by  a  vague  and  distant  hint  of  the  quality  that  belongs 
to  human  choice.  Mr.  Waterhouse  Hawkins  says  that 
a  friend  of  his  had  for  some  years  a  sea-anemone  in 
an  aquarium,  which  would  receive  its  food  from  the 
hands  of  its  owner,  but  never  from  Hawkins's  hands, 
though  he  had  a  hundred  times  made  the  experiment 
of  endeavoring  to  feed  it.  Here  is  not  merely  percep- 
tion for  food,  but  a  comparing,  a  distinguishing  sensi- 
bility, a  choice  in  the  mode  of  taking  it,  belonging  to 
an  object  the  least  likely,  in  our  estimation,  to  show  it. 

But  the  plants,  also,  accept  the  elements  that  favor 
their  individuality,  and  reject  the  unsuitable.  Potatoes 
in  a  cellar  will  put  forth  their  bleached  shoots  towards 
the  single  window  that  admits  the  light ;  the  process 


112  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

is  dual :  at  one  end  a  potato,  at  the  other  end  a  sun.  A 
Rhode-Island  apple-tree  became  aware,  by  a  subter- 
ranean inkling,  that  the  body  of  Roger  Williams, 
thoueh  buried  at  a  considerable  distance  in  the  or 
chard,  might  be  reached  with  effort  and  patience.  So 
it  put  forth  a  root  in  that  direction,  ignoring  every 
other,  and  struck  through  the  decaying  coffin  to  the 
skull  of  the  great  champion  of  religious  liberty,  as  if 
to  absorb  that  advantage  into  New-England's  symbolic 
fruit.  Thence  it  spread  in  a  fine  net-work  of  fibre  over 
every  member  of  the  body,  and  eventually  transferred 
its  whole  nutriment  into  successive  crops  of  pippin  or 
russet,  leaving  a  perfect  cast  af  it,  done  in  that  silent 
modelling,  for  the  Historical  Society. 

How  is  such  an  instinct  related  to  the  universal  Life  ? 
Certainly  Deity  cannot  be  a  ghoul,  reduced  to  grubbing 
up  graves  for  a  livelihood :  nevertheless  we  can  ac- 
cept the  facts  to  indicate  that  In-being  appears  in 
plant  life  and  physical  life,  as  well  as  in  mind  and 
conscience.  But  it  is  necessary  to  find  some  distinc- 
tion between  the  two  manifestations.  The  physical 
functions  of  the  plant  and  animal  are  taken  up  by  the 
human  body  and  carried  on  :  they  include  involuntary 
vital  acts  and  the  whole  economy  of  the  organization. 
They  also  take  a  prominent  part  in  that  condition  of 
our  ordinary  life  which  lies  between  physical  functions 
and  the  mental  and  intuitive  forms  of  our  individuality  ; 
that  stirring,  choring,  bustling,  mimicing,  gossiping, 
and  striving  ;  that  indifferent  intercourse  of  people  that 
reproduces  the  habits  of  instinct,  and  swarms  in  the 
basement  over  which  the  mind  entertains  illustrious 
guests. 


LAW   OF   THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  I!  3 

There  is  no  point  of  the  whole  scale  from  which 
the  divine  in-being  has  retreated  ;  it  nourishes  all,  but 
the  simpler  the  organization  the  less  the  freedom.  The 
relation  of  the  lower  forms  of  life  to  the  immanence 
is  simple  necessity.  As  the  structure  becomes  com- 
plicated, and  opens  more  gates  to  the  creative  energy, 
the  necessity,  to  our  surprise,  diminishes,  just  when 
we  should  expect  to  find  it  confirmed  and  intensified 
by  this  increase  of  absolute  life.  The  object,  instead 
of  being  swamped  by  taking  on  board  so  much  from 
beyond  itself,  rides  more  freely.  Dead  weight  is  ex- 
panded into  buoyancy.  It  is  because  it  receives  more 
of  the  divine  freedom.  The  object  arrests,  and  gives 
a  hint  of,  this  tendency  of  absolute  life  towards  a  liber- 
ation of  itself  into  higflier  forms.  We  see  that  it  is  not 
taking  the  direction  of  imprisonment  for  itself,  or  of 
threatening  abject  servitude  for  individuals ;  and  we 
trace  it  by  ever  widening  avenues  of  law  as  it  escapes 
from  legal  necessity  into  those  human  functions  which 
report  the  sense  of  an  I.  Its  culminating  in  that  place 
or  relation  is  an  act  that  leaves  both  free  :  the  one 
remains  God,  the  other  becomes  Man.  The  conscience 
is  the  highest  reach  of  this,  and  its  otight  justifies  and 
explains  the  whole  advance  in  freedom. 

What  an  earnest  expectation  of  this  topmost  result 
is  announced  by  the  first  faint  tokens  of  life  in  the  de- 
velopment of  created  things.  We  know  what  purpose 
animated  every  stage  of  creation  by  the  consciousness 
into  which  we  have  developed.  The  lapse  of  time 
from  the  moment  of  the  simplest  cell  and  the  minutest 
motion  to  the  present  hour  is  rehearsed  in  us.  We  are 
the  sum  of  it,  and  are  therefore  capable  of  imagining 


114  AMERICAN   RELIGION-. 

the  rapture  which  flew  into  every  fresh  form  of  life, 
as  the  divine  composer,  summoning  instrument  after 
instrument  into  his  harmony,  climbed  with  his  theme 
from  those  that  offered  but  a  single  note  to  those  that 
exhaust  the  complexity  of  thought  and  feeling,  to  com- 
bine them  into  expression,  kindling  through  hints, 
phrases,  sudden  concords,  mustering  consents  of  many 
wills,  releases  of  each  one's  felicity  into  comradeship, 
till  the  sweet  tumult  becomes  his  champion,  and 
bursts  into  the  acclaim  of  a  whole  world  :  "  I  ought  — 
so  then  I  will."  The  toppling  instruments  concur,  be- 
come the  w^ave  that  touches  that  high  moment,  lifts 
the  whole  deep  and  holds  it  there. 

The  intellect  has  its  share  in  that  unity  of  conscious- 
ness, and  brings  to  the  front  of  knowledge  the  method 
of  laws  which  have  gradually  set  it  apart  from  the 
worlds  beneath  it  to  become  a  Person.  Then  science 
is  possible,  and  the  mind  becomes  its  own  interpreter. 
The  right  method  of  thinking  is  part  of  the  divine  con- 
tinuity ;  it  is  sure  to  displace,  eventually,  all  arbitrary 
or  superstitious  methods,  because  these  are  only  ar- 
rested stages  of  itself,  or  its  imperfectly  apprehended 
drift,  distorted  rays  through  the  prism  which  mankind 
has  not  yet  learned  to  hold. 

It  seems  that  the  in-being  of  God  has  been  observed 
sooner  in  the  conscience  than  in  the  intellect.  This  is 
because  the  intellect  has  inherited  so  many  complex 
sensations,  and  is  embarrassed  by  its  own  attempts  at 
knowing  a  world  which  does  not  instantly  declare  its 
secrets.  So  there  is  a  process  of  observation  and  de- 
duction that  is  not  identical  with  the  process  of  crea- 
tion.    The  infinite  intelligence  seems  to  have  retreated 


LAW    OF   THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  1 15 

from  the  confusion,  or  to  appear  not  to  care  to  be  un- 
derstood. At  what  point  of  direct  contact  dare  we 
maintain  that  the  divine  in-being  is.'* 

Intellect  splits  into  manifold  inventiveness,  and  gives 
birth  to  the  different  kinds  of  intelligences.  The  divine 
manifoldness  appears  as  Gift.  It  is  no  objection  that 
isolated  gifts  may  be  exercised  unconsciously.  There 
is  a  great  range  from  automatic  cerebral  action  to  the 
synthesis  of  the  highest  minds,  as  they  consciously 
gather  from  all  parts  of  creation  the  effects  which 
betray  the  mode  of  the  divine  operation,  and  how 
every  thing  is  correlated  and  coheres.  The  higher  this 
synthesis,  or  putting  together,  the  greater  is  the  in- 
being  of  the  mind  that  thus  declares  itself  in  a  kindred 
intelligence.  It  may  mount  into  an  intuitive  feeling  of 
law,  that  is  like,  and  coequal  with,  the  sense  of  abso- 
lute Ought  and  Ought  Not,  and  involves  a  conscious- 
ness of  being  part  of  an  infinite  Person.  For  it  defers 
to  the  order  of  the  universe,  to  its  intellectual  method, 
to  its  synthesis  of  forces.  The  more  it  bends  thus  to 
the  great  centres  that  seek  and  draw  It,  the  less  Indi- 
vidual it  feels,  because  It  no  longer  adheres  to  partial 
and  transitional  shifts,  and  is  not  detained  by  conceit 
for  them.  The  I  becomes  freer  with  every  aban- 
donment to  this  organic  closeness  of  God,  till  It  can 
exclaim  with  Kepler,  "  I  think  Thy  thoughts  after 
Thee  ! " 

This  intuitive  apprehension  of  the  drift  of  facts  and 
of  phenomena  is  immanence  of  the  Mind  that  is  nour- 
ishing the  facts.  Creating  becomes  interpreting,  and 
breaks  Into  speech  through  things  that  are  made. 

For  if  the  phenomena  that  are  thus  interpreted  do 


Il6  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

not  result  from  any  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms,  but 
rather  betray  mind  by  their  regularity  and  persistence, 
age  after  age,  in  every  quarter  of  the  universe  where 
observation  can  reach  them,  the  interpretation  must, 
a  fortiori^  betray  the  presence  of  mind.  The  finite 
intelligence  is  then  a  fact  or  phenomenon  with  the 
infinite  mind  in  contact  with  it. 

No  matter  if  the  finite  mind  is  unconscious  of  this 
vitalizing  proximity,  or  denies  it  altogether  in  favor  of 
some  theory  of  organic  action  of  the  individual  as  an 
effect  of  forces.  The  denial  only  pushes  the  vitality 
one  step  to  the  rear,  and  leaves  it  in  a  place  where  it 
must  apply  to  its  real  base  for  nourishment  or  perish. 
And  the  unconsciousness  of  a  scientific  mind  that  it  is 
so  sustained  by  the  in-being  of  a  divine  mind  cannot 
be  alleged  against  the  real  closeness  of  that  Mind.  As 
well  might  the  failure  of  a  plant  or  animal  to  appre- 
hend the  great  fact  be  held  sufficient  to  denv  it :  for  all 
objects,  including  men,  are  recipients  of  more  life  than 
they  refer  to  its  source.  The  organization  becomes 
the  measure  and  tool  of  it  without  finding  self-reflec- 
tion and  analysis  essential,  or  without  pushing  it  far 
enough  to  discover  a  personal  Will  that  belongs  to  a 
divine  intelligence. 

A  habit  is  quite  prevalent  among  scientific  men  w^ho 
stand  closest  to  the  real  order  of  the  world,  and  who 
are  emancipating  us  from  old  phrases  and  methods,  to 
refer  all  phenomena  to  Force,  or  to  hold  the  general 
idea  of  Cause  without  caring  to  suppose  it  Person  or 
to  attribute  to  it  a  direct  and  continuous  contact  with 
all  objects  through  the  channels  of  their  laws.  This  in- 
difference of  science  may  exist  in  minds  which  are  the 


LAW    OF    THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  II 7 

[Host  thoroughly  inspired  by  the  rational  order  of 
Mature,  the  most  conscientious  and  self-sacrificing  to 
pursue  its  results,  the  most  courageous  to  combat  su- 
perstitions, and  without  even  mentionins;  the  name  of 
orod.  Their  fidelity  is  none  the  less  divinely  sustained 
because  they  are  not  conscious  that  it  is,  or  do  not  care 
ivhether  it  is  or  not.  Their  experiments  pursue  a 
phenomenon  to  its  remotest  coverts  by  the  sure  trail  of 
the  natural  scent  it  leaves  :  nothing^  turns  them  aside 
or  throws  them  oft'.  Right  mental  method  puts  them 
on  the  track  of  the  law  of  the  object,  and  that  is  enough 
for  them.  They  will  devote  a  life  to  the  noble  worship 
of  pursuing,  and  deem  it  irrelevant  or  superfluous  to 
be  called  off  to  talk  about  the  divine  immanence,  and 
to  set  up  the  necessity  of  being  supplied  with  a  per- 
sonal God.  But  their  Truth  is  God,  their  .  Force  is 
him  also,  their  invariable  Law  is  the  proclamation  of 
his  nearness,  and  their  subtle  facts  the  hints  he  gives 
of  directions  favorable  to  pursue. 

This  is  the  position  of  many  foreign  men  of  science, 
who  are  doing  such  a  noble  work  in  importing  the 
real  methods  of  the  universe  into  every  branch  of 
knowledge.  Their  language  frequently  presumes  an 
indifference  which  they  do  not  feel ;  for  they  hold 
it  to  be  a  sacred  duty  to  confine  phrases  to  the  busi- 
ness they  have  in  hand,  which  is  that  of  detecting 
and  preserving'  specimens  of  the  actual  processes  of 
creation.  Their  rapture  goes  forth  in  that  direction ; 
they  point  you  to  marks  of  a  wonderful  footstep,  and 
kindle  with  their  whole  nature  full  of  intuition  as  they 
see  and  declare  to  you  how  all  feet  fit  into  it,  and  how 
all  things  must  have  passed  that  way.     No  more  relig- 


Il8  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

ions  attitude  can  be  conceived :  for  religion  is  recog- 
nition of  central  facts,  the  confinement  of  effects  to  the 
lines  of  causality,  the  emancipation  of  mankind  from 
ignorance  and  false  habits,  and  the  reconciliation  of 
all  knowledge  to  invisible  Truth. 

It  Is  only  w^hen  the  scientific  mind  goes  out  of  this 
professional  neutrality  of  expression  to  make  its  facts 
deny  Intelligence  and  Will  that  it  becomes  irreligious, 
because  then  Instead  of  conciliating  facts  w^Ith  causes 
it  divorces  them,  and  leaves  all  certitude  at  the  mercy 
of  a  phrase.  They  repeat  the  error  of  the  theologians, 
and  land  us,  however  correct  their  methods  of  experi- 
ment and  observation  may  be.  In  a  notion  :  it  Is  either 
Correlation,  Protoplasm,  or  some  other  substitute  for 
the  old  metaphysics,  but  no  improvement  on  them  as 
statements  of  final  and  efficient  cause.  So  long  as 
these  phrases  are  honestly  held  to  represent  the  points 
which  the  mind  has  reached,  and  the  tentative  process 
which  gathers  and  coordinates  the  greatest  number  of 
phenomena,  with  no  pretence  to  impose  a  finality  nor 
to  claim  that  there  Is  nothing  more  beyond,  the  scien- 
tific man  may  be  praised  for  his  temperate  and  Impar- 
tial speech.  Many  shall  cry.  Lord,  Lord  !  out  of  mere 
custom  of  causation,  and  be  no  more  conscious  of 
In-being  than  the  men  who  declare  that  they  are  con- 
scious of  nothing  but  method. 

But,  we  repeat,  this  unconsciousness  of  the  scientific 
intellect  Is  not  damaging  to  the  fact  that  God  Inheres 
In  its  method,  and  Is  the  breath  of  Its  suggestions. 
Individual  consciousness  is  not  essential  to  this  vitaliz- 
ing presence  :  It  need  not  be  the  continuous  nor  the 
occasional  result  of  it.     This  question  has  been   much 


LAW    OF    THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  II9 

embarrassed  by  two  theological  errors  :  that  man  must 
live  in  a  state  of  personal  experience  of  Omnipres- 
ence, and  that  communication  is  its  favorite  way  to  be 
announced  and  recognized.  But  the  divine  mind  ap- 
pears as  Gift ;  its  fulness  becomes  ultimated  thus  in 
man,  as  all  animate  and  inanimate  things  describe  its 
freshest  expressions.  If  it  communicates,  it  is  by  the 
advantages  of  structure.  Many  degrees  of  this  exist 
with  more  or  less  accompaniment  of  consciousness. 
Most  commonly  the  consciousness  is  confined  to  those 
rare  moments  when  the  gift  blossoms  into  fruition, 
when  moments  of  success  impend,  when  experiences 
accumulate  around  a  soul's  point,  and  a  thrill  of  re- 
cognition passes,  a  consent  of  receptivity,  unspoken, 
or  vocal  with  all  the  praises  that  the  imagination,  as  it 
fills  with  the  blood  of  the  hour's  great  pulse,  may 
lavish  on  it. 

The  man  who  calls  himself  an  atheist  and  derides 
the  sentimentalism  of  communion  with  God,  honestly 
declaring  that  no  such  fact  ever  entered  into  his  con- 
sciousness, is  a  better  testimony  to  an  indwelling  Deity 
than  the  crowds  of  pietists  who  try  to  inflate  themselves 
with  the  wind  of  phrases  into  a  state  of  continual  dis- 
tention with  Omnipresence,  because  they  are  forcing 
their  structure  beyond  its  organic  ability,  while  he  is 
sincere  enough  to  state  exactly  how  far  the  structure  in 
his  case  repeats  any  such  experience.  For  in-being, 
though  of  a  transcendent  essence,  does  not  choose  to 
transcend  any  structure  which  it  brings  down  by  inheri- 
tance and  sustains  ;  our  authority  for  saying  this  is  the 
structure  itself,  which  cannot  give  any  other  account 
of  its   existence.      And  one   structure   can  transcend 


I20  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

another  only  on  the  strength  of  the  in-being  that  strictly 
corresponds  to  both.  After  a  shell  has  once  been  cast 
and  filled,  there  is  no  way  of  increasing  the  latent 
capacity  of  the  charge  which  it  contains.  It  soars  to 
heights  and  drops  at  distances  that  chronicle  its  calibre. 
So  that  if  a  man  truly  reports  absence  of  any  sense  of 
God,  lie  does  not  report  absence  of  God,  but  presence 
of  God  in  the  sincerity  which  makes  known  a  structu- 
ral defect.  His  state  of  divineness  is  superior  to  that 
of  the  religionists  who  assume  a  sense  of  God  because 
no  respectable  family  can  be  without  it.  Great  num- 
bers of  people  attribute  consciousness  of  God  to  con- 
ventional emotions  which  are  warmed  by  religious 
exercises  into  semblance  of  organic  life.  Nothing  is 
nearer  to  them  than  their  spurious,  sectarian  self.  At 
best  they  only  labor  to  reproduce  or  to  imitate  some 
vanished  moment  of  profound  experience,  when  life  or 
death  was  surprised  listening  at  the  door.  The  com- 
mon belief  in  a  God  is  compounded  of  thought  and 
emotion,  but  a  perception  of  God  is  generally  only  an 
intellectual  assent  in  the  interest  of  causation.  For 
people  differ  considerably  in  the  faculty  to  condense 
the  latent  God  into  personal  consciousness,  just  as  they 
differ  in  ability  to  state  in  prose  or  hymn  the  condition 
itself  when  it  arrives.  With  the  great  majority  of  peo- 
ple it  never  passes  beyond  the  satisfaction  which  moral 
triumphs  bring.  When  the  organization  asserts  itself 
by  normal  acts  in  any  direction,  and  a  function  is  ap- 
peased, the  light  heart  praises  the  moment  and  enjoys 
its  health.  The  mystics  insist  that  all  mankind  shall 
make  pretence  to  more  than  this,  and  they  encourage 
cerebral  exaltations  by  voting  them  to   be   influxes  of 


LAW    OF    THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  121 

the  invisible.  Like  the  alchemist  and  the  astrologer, 
they  have  fooled  the  world  with  fancies.  An  iron 
kettle  cannot  be  transmuted  into  gold,  and  the  stars  in 
their  courses  never  took  the  trouble  to  fight  with  or 
against  Sisera. 

But  it  is  none  the  less  a  mental  necessity  to  accept 
the  in-being  of  Will  and  Intelligence.  No  assumptions 
that  consciousness  and  communication  are  or  arc  not 
vital  experimental  facts  can  affect  this  necessary  atti- 
tude of  derived  intelligence.  The  scientific  man  may  be 
only  calling  it  by  other  names,  so  long  as  he  is  uncon- 
scious of  the  reputed  experiences  of  the  theological 
world.  If  a  mind  can  see  the  drift  of  all  the  phenom- 
ena that  are  continuously  nourished  and  put  forth  for 
observation,  it  must  account  for  its  ability  to  see  the 
drift.  How  can  it  detect  the  law  of  the  plant  except 
by  means  of  the  plant's  law?  As  soon  as  the  mind 
perceives  the  absence  of  chance  from  the  minutest  turn 
-'  and  stage  of  the  development  of  species,  it  is  aware 
that  it  perceives  this  by  means  of  intelligent  purpose 
imported  into  itself;  it  submits  to  this  general  intelli- 
gence, and  lives  with  all  other  created  things  immedi- 
ately from  the  Will  which  it  embodies.  But  the  mind 
refuses  to  expect  communication  because  itself  is  an 
organized  test  of  In-being. 

Inventions  and  discoveries  which  increase  our 
knowledge  are  generally  accumulations  of  a  tendency 
towards  them  that  has  controlled  a  number  of  minds, 
perhaps  for  generations.  Gifted  persons  contribute  a 
surmise,  a  detail,  an  imperfect  experiment :  their  lives 
are  haunted  with  such  a  strong  probability  that  they 
put  forth  repeated  efforts  in  its  direction,  abandon  it, 

6 


122  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

recur  to  it,  and  slowly  educate  the  general  thinking, 
so  that  fresh  minds  take  up  the  matter  at  an  advantage, 
furnish  more  probability,  break  through  here  and  there 
into  the  daylight,  and  bequeath  at  least  encourage- 
ment to  their  successors.  Not  a  hint  is  ever  lost. 
If  separate  families  of  cultivated  men  do  not  transmit 
it,  the  republic  of  letters  keeps  it  perpetually  on  file, 
where  a  kindred  mind,  consulting  the  achievements  of 
the  race,  is  sure  to  find  it.  The  special  thought  is 
rekindled,  and  at  length  all  hearths  are  furnished  with 
its  comfort.  So  Gift  is  slow  in  elaborating  its  prefer- 
ences. Its  growth  is  often  checked,  and  the  earth's 
climate  appears  inclement.  But  the  hardy  fruit  is 
favored  by  these  suspenses,  and  acquires  firmness  and 
flavor.  The  In-being  that  allowed  some  millions  of 
years  for  making  balls  of  sun-sand  can  be  patient 
while  relays  of  minds  are  condensing  the  matter  of 
knowledge,  to  set  fresh  surprises  rolling  in  our  sky. 
It  consumes  as  much  time  to  interpret  a  world  as  to 
make  it. 

So  all  the  laws  which  lead  to  science  and  invention 
have  a  history.  The  discovery  of  the  laws  of  motion 
must  correct  the  crude  ideas  of  Aristotle,  and  prepare 
for  Newton,  who  supplements  them  with  the  five 
truths  of  gravitation,  and  drives  out  of  the  heavens 
the  epicycles  of  Ptolemy  and  the  vortices  of  Descartes. 
That  apple  was  two  thousand  years  in  falling.  The 
law  of  refraction  precedes  the  law  of  polarization, 
and  there  must  be  a  theory  of  caloric  to  disappoint 
men  and  pique  them  to  discover  that  heat  is  but  a 
mode  of  motion.  Linnaeus  classifies  plants  and  de- 
scribes the  characters  and  functions  of  e^ch  part  oi 


LAW    OF   THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  1 23 

them,  before  Goethe  can  perceive  that  all  the  parts 
are  metamorphoses  of  the  same  primitive  member. 
Humboldt  and  other  travellers  observe  the  variation  of 
the  compass  and  the  dip  of  the  needle  on  so  many 
spots  of  the  earth's  surface,  that  the  facts  suggest  to 
several  minds  at  once  the  theory  of  a  magnetic  equator 
and  of  magnetic  poles ;  but  the  right  man  has  not  yet 
appeared  to  convert  the  conjecture  into  science.  Be- 
fore Dalton,  seeking  for  a  law  of  chemical  combina- 
tion, can  speak  of  atomic  weights,  Wollaston  must 
treat  atoms  as  chemical  equivalents,  and  Davy  must 
investigate  their  proportions.  After  Dalton  has  fin- 
ished a  neglected  life,  Faraday  finds  himself  well 
equipped  to  give  each  elementary  substance  a  number 
which  expresses  the  relative  amount  of  its  decompo- 
sition ;  he  calls  it  "  electro-chemical  equivalent,"  and 
the  identity  of  electrical  and  chemical  action  is  at  last 
attained. 

Oken  stumbles  over  a  deer's  skeleton,  and  picks  up 
the  sudden  suggestion  that  a  skull  is  an  expanded 
vertebra  ;  a  frog's  leg  has  a  spasm  when  a  Galvani 
happens  to  be  standing  near  ;  Franklin's  knuckle  draws 
the  first  spark  from  the  fact  of  an  electrical  equilibri- 
um :  but  long  periods  of  tentative  experiment  pre- 
pared all  these  and  similar  lucky  moments.  It  seems 
that  the  original  plan  to  have  pterodactylic  and  sau- 
rian forerunners  of  all  compact  and  economical  forms 
reigns  also  in  the  domain  of  thought.  But  theories 
sprawl  towards  symmetry,  and  the  divine  mind  is 
content  with  the  direction.  The  results  surprise  igno- 
ance,  and  seem  to  have  arrived  by  legerdemain  ;  but 
all  discoverers  know  best   how  gradually  conjecture 


124  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

has  reached  their  consciousness  of  Law  through  brain- 
cells  modified  for  centuries.  Man  grows  till  his  hand 
can  reach  the  latch  ;  it  is  a  simple  motion,  then,  to 
enter.  And  throughout  the  whole  development,  it 
was  In-being  which  made  it  impossible  for  a  New- 
ton to  precede  Pythagoras,  Beethoven  a  Terpander, 
Shakspeare  a  Homer.  In-being,  then,  controlled  each 
point  of  the  vast  line. 

When  the  growth  ripens,  Galileo  invents  a  tele- 
scope. Watt  a  steam-engine,  Goethe  discovers  Morph- 
ology ;  Alexander  Braun  could  not  earlier  have  drawn 
up  his  first  formula  of  Phyllotaxis,  or  the  fractional 
ratio  of  the  spiral  ascent  of  leaves  around  a  stem  ; 
and  Prof.  Peirce  must  wait  to  hear  of  that  before  his 
brain  can  build  into  the  suggestion  that  the  same  frac- 
tions are  approximate  expressions  of  the  relative  times 
of  rotation  of  the  planets.  The  Mind  that  has  so  long 
plotted  and  constructed  on  the  scale  of  an  infinite 
fraction,  which  these  approximately  express,  finally 
lets  out  the  secret.  What  other  mind  has  shared  it? 
There  is  no  technical  communication,  because  the 
mental  structure  touches  the  law  with  the  felicity  to 
which  it  has  attained. 

God  either  is  or  is  not  immanent  in  thfs.  Many 
scientific  men  imply  that  the  whole  suite  of  phe- 
nomena la}^  packed  in  the  first  germs  of  life.  The 
theory  is,  that  primitive  matter  was  endowed  with 
everything  that  has  since  happened :  all  forms,  all 
creatures,  all  developments  of  thought,  have  been 
evolutions,  by  regular  stages  and  a  discernible  logic, 
from  points  of  matter  that  were  also  points  of  forces 
chartered  by  Intelligence  for  this  voyage  of  history, 


LAW    OF    THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  1 25 

to  set  down  instalments  at  successive  ports ;  opening 
fresh  instructions  but  receiving  no  fresh  ones,  every- 
thing having  been  anticipated  and  put  on  board  be- 
fore the  start.  Science  appears  to  favor  this  theory 
for  two  reasons :  it  obviates  the  necessity  of  importing 
a  Creator  all  along  the  route,  to  superintend  modifica- 
tions and  contrive  fresh  species  ;  for  this  trotting  in 
and  out  of  a  divine  intervention,  so  dear  to  theology, 
is  very  repugnant  to  the  men  of  Law.  Another  rea- 
son is,  that  the  uses  to  which  theology  has  put  the  idea 
of  Omnipresence,  to  sustain  miraculous  irruptions, 
special  providences  and  communications,  has  also  dis- 
gusted the  scientific  mind,  which  is  impressed  by  the 
spectacle  of  a  providence  that  is  continuity  and  uni- 
formity of  causation.  It  refuses,  in  short,  to  be  guided 
by  the  assumption  of  a  meddlesome  and  capricious 
incoming,  as  of  some  one  who  has  afterthoughts,  and 
desires  to  change  his  mind  or  modify  the  results  of 
forces  ;  who  is  constantly  picking  at  his  own  works, 
because  he  discovers  that  unless  he  is  on  the  ground 
there  is  no  help  to  convert  a  scale  into  a  feather,  gills 
into  lungs,  flippers  into  hands ;  that  everything  turns 
out  to  have  the  fatal  defect  that  it  is  unable  to  go 
alone,  and  that  man  himself  cannot  add  a  pin-feather 
to  a  pigeon's  leg,  or  modify  its  throat,  unless  Allmight- 
iness  is  on  the  spot. 

The  tendency  to  concede  great  results  to  the  latency 
of  forces  gathered  at  points  of  matter  is  a  reaction 
from  the  fetichism  of  theology.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
minds,  which  are  drenched  with  the  sense  of  an  orderly 
and  gradual  development  of  objects  by  minute  changes 
through  vast  periods,  should  not  be  able  to  contain  a 


126  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

drop  of  the  dregs  in  the  old  cup  of  supernaturallsm. 
Let  the  savage  vivify  his  calabash  and  necklace  of 
teeth  with  a  god,  if  he  pleases.  Science  prefers  a 
God  large  enough,  and  of  intelligence  comprehen- 
sive enough,  to  be  remanded  back  into  eternity, 
where  the  first  plastic  germ  and  the  last  thinking 
soul  occupy,  with  all  that  transpires  between,  but 
a  breath  or  instant  which  is  the  everlasting  Now. 
To  Him,  whose  watch-tick  is  our  millions  of  years 
just  on  the  point  of  striking,  what  is  the  zeal  of 
the  theologian  to  import  Omnipresence  into  his  petty 
pulpit  spasm  ;  what  the  intent  of  the  naturalist  to 
confine  it  to  the  origins  of  species,  or  of  the  his- 
torian to  chain  this  watch-dog  to  the  threshold  of 
epochs? 

And  we  must  concede  that  science  makes  out  its 
case  in  favor  of  potential  forces  that  cluster  at  points 
of  matter,  travel  through  their  combinations,  are  cor- 
related or  opposed,  and  waltz  in  and  out  of  each  other 
in  endless  masquerade.  Definite  physical  conditions 
draw  after  them  invariable  demonstrations  of  power 
and  vitality.  When  the  brakes  are  applied  to  the 
wheels  of  a  train,  and  their  motion  disappears,  where 
is  it?  It  is  liberated  into  the  form  of  heat.  What  is 
the  philosophy  of  this  simple  transaction?  Something 
has  taken  place  :  there  has  been  a  manifestation  of 
elemental  law.  Did  God  shift  from  motion  into  heat, 
and  wait  there  to  be  brought  round  to  motion-making 
processes  again?  Was  he  watching  the  brakeman's 
arm  that  he  might  be  on  time,  and  free  his  heat 
from  his  motion?  No,  says  Science:  no  God  took 
passage  by  that  train.     The   most  we  can  believe  is 


LAW    OF   THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  1 27 

that  the  first  infinite  Fuhiess  precontained  the  invaria- 
ble correlation. 

That  is  the  least  we  can  believe.  No  matter  at 
how  many  removes,  interpose  as  many  of  them  as 
we  please,  the  fact  must  at  last  be  due  to  something. 
A  man  may  pick  his  teeth,  a  bird  may  preen  its 
feathers,  an  insect  may  acquire  the  protection  of  its 
color,  without  the  co-presence  of  Deity.  We  do  not 
know  the  extent  to  which  the  creative  mind  econo- 
mizes its  relation  to  things,  and  turns  them  over  to  its 
practised  menials.  There  must  be  dignity  as  well  as 
frugality  of  Omnipresence.  But  the  trivial  occurrence 
between  the  brake  and  the  wheel  has  range  enough  to 
invite  co-presence  ;  and  that  is  not  intervention.  Per- 
haps no  other  fact  could  so  well  indicate  the  vast 
and  incessant  shifting  of  motion  into  other  elemental 
conditions,  to  keep  up  the  interplay  of  laws  upon  the 
scale  of  a  universe.  The  slight  local  flitting  of  motion 
into  heat,  under  the  turn  of  a  brakeman's  muscle,  is 
like  the  bent  twig,  or  the  pressed  grass-blade,  that 
betrays  to  the  trapper  which  way  his  game  has  passed 
on  its  long  route  through  apparently  deserted  forests. 
It  is  a  flicker  of  expression  upon  an  infinite  counte- 
nance, where  all  the  moods  of  creation  disport  them- 
selves :  now  and  then  a  side-long  glance  detains  our 
conscious  observation,  but  it  is  significant  of  spaces 
over  which  all  the  eyes  in  all  the  planets  could  not 
be  concentrated  to  report  one  great  occurrence,  and 
all  intelligences  could  not  overtake  its  manifoldness. 
But  show  us  a  stick  whose  weather-side  has  been 
turned  under,  or  an  abraded  tree-bark,  and  we  can 
satisfy  ourselves  that  a  wildness  takes  to  covert  and 
invites  us  to  pursue. 


128  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

•'  Malo  me  Galatea  petit  — 
Et  fugit  ad  salices,  et  se  cupit  ante  videri :  " 

towards  me  Galatea  tosses  an  apple,  then  she  flies  to 
the  willow-clumps,  wishing  that  my  glance  may  fol- 
low. The  apple  is  expressive  enough,  though  we  are 
not  detained  by  its  flavor,  because  Galatea  throws  it 
only  to  provoke  us  to  leave  it  for  herself. 

To  say  that  acts  of  correlation  were  precalculated, 
precontained,  is  a  mere  phrase  w^hich  accounts  for 
nothing  but  only  relegates  them  to  primordial  germs. 
If,  to  relieve  this  from  being  only  a  notion,  one  says 
that  the  germs  started  to  travel  with  the  fulness  in 
every  direction  till  there  became  a  universe,  he  right- 
fully says  that  the  Infinite  passed  into  representation 
by  a  universe  :  it  accompanied  its  germs  into  action. 
What  else  can  it  be  doing,  indeed,  except  beiizg  every 
point  of  space  in  every  moment  of  time?  He  says, 
what  he  ought  to  say,  that  In-being  is  the  immediate 
cause  of  all  phenomena,  which  occur  to  us  in  a  series 
of  years,  and  in  a  logically  graduated  method,  but  oc- 
cur to  God  in  an  eternal  moment.  For  time  and  space 
form  only  a  "  provisional  cuticle  "  for  mind  in  its  finite 
condition. 

"  He  glows  above 
With  scarce  an  intervention,  presses  close 
And  palpitatingly.  His  soul  o'er  ours  ! 
We  feel  Him,  nor  by  painful  reason  know! 
The  everlasting  minute  of  creation 
Is  felt  there  ;  No'd}  it  is,  as  it  was  Then  ; 
All  changes  at  His  instantaneous  will, 
Not  by  tlie  operation  of  a  law 
Whose  maker  is  elsewhere  at  other  work! 
His  soul  is  still  engaged  upon  his  world." 


LAW    OF    THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  129 

But  when  Mr.  Browning  adds,  — 

"  Man's  praise  can  forward  it,  inan's  prayer  suspend, 
For  is  not  God  all-mighty?" 

he  fancies  God  not  so  mighty  as  to  be  independent  of 
the  ejaculations  into  which  man's  joy  or  grief  tran- 
spires. God's  co-presence,  with  all  finite  structures, 
might  diminish  the  bulk  of  dictionaries,  and  ease 
bodies  of  divinity  of  groaning  on  our  shelves. 

Man's  deeds  can  forward  it,  but  the  bad  ones  seem 
to  have  been  in  the  long  run  quite  as  providential  as 
the  good.     How  bad  were  they,  then.'' 

Now  we  say.  Watt  invents  a  steam-engine,  Goethe 
discovers  Morphology.  There  either  is  or  is  not  di- 
vine in-being  in  the  structures  which  reach  these  results. 
Why  is  there  not,  if  there  is  in  the  plant?  The  plant 
draws  sap  in  this  eternal  moment  of  creation,  not  by 
its  own  device,  but  in  the  stress  of  the  moment.  It 
has  not  concluded  to  be  a  jonquil,  a  tulip,  a  violet. 
Does  a  combination  of  earths  and  forces  qualify  its 
name?  Then  what  qualifies  the  combination?  Is  it 
a  primitive  fancy  of  form  and  color,  packed  into  a 
monad  of  matter,  left  to  burst  out  eventually  in  our 
meadow,  as  a  fire  work's  changes  blaze  out  and  into 
each  other,  and  dispense  with  the  original  fusee  clear 
through  its  combinations?  Then  ever}^  thing  has  got 
everywhere,  and  extruded,  if  not  abolished,  its  own 
Creator.  At  the  least,  he  has  stepped  aside,  as  a  man 
who  lights  his  firework,  and  he  has  attained  through 
all  these  millions  of  years  to  the  function  of  being  su- 
perfluous. The  primordial  germs  emptied  out  all  his 
infinity,  and   his   first  creative   act  was   fatal   to  him 

6* 


130  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

Perhaps  this  splendid  moth  of  the  Cosmos  may  yet 
ahght  upon  the  deserted  cocoon. 

Immanence  has  not  displaced  Watt's  mentality,  and 
dropped  into  him  with  the  idea  of  Engine  :  for  in  that 
case  he  would  be  himself  an  engine  with  the  steam 
turned  on.  How  shall  we  save  ourselves  from  this  pan- 
theistic absorption,  and  save  the  immanence  that  nour- 
ishes the  individual  structure  ?  By  recurring  to  the  idea 
previously  expressed  that  the  self-working  /attains  to 
freedom  throuofh  contact  with  the  Immanence.  We 
may  say  that  Watt  is  immersed  in  it,  but  as  an  indi- 
vidual with  a  definite  habit  of  sti'ucture,  that  evolves 
Immanence  into  special  ideas  and  forms.  His  invent- 
iveness is  his  special  freedom  in  Immanence.  And  i7t 
his  freedom  Immanence  obeys  and  preserves  its  own. 
It  is  continuous  and  not  irruptional,  and  is  related  to 
Watt  in  the  universal  character  of  designer  and  main- 
tainer  of  structure.  Watt  is  not  a  free  person  who  is 
occasionall}^  controlled,  enriched  by  a  suggestion, 
domineered  by  a  divine  moment,  thrown  into  abeyance 
by  the  intrusion  of  Immanence  with  its  details  of  an 
engine.  But  he  is  a  person  whose  gift  acquires  its 
freedom  in  compatibility  with,  as  well  as  in  conse- 
quence of,  its  contact  with  the  Immanence  ;  and  it  is 
the  law  or  natural  disposition  of  this  Immanence  to 
reach  finite  freedom  in  this  way.  Watt's  speciality, 
Goethe's  deductive  sense,  is  a  hint  or  partial  forth- 
setting  of  the  absolute  freedom  that  Immanence  has 
by  virtue  of  containing  absolute  Law.  And  the  free- 
dom of  each  man  is  in  proportion  to  the  content  of 
his  speciality. 

If  a   doubt   arises  that   mere  phrasing   and  verbal 


LAW    OF    THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  I3I 

jugglery  is  here  engaged  in  holding  off  Immanence  to 
keep  human  freedom  inviolate,  and  then  in  turning  it 
on  to  keep  the  freedom  nourished,  and  so  to  balance 
the  terms  as  to  create  an  abstract  notion  of  such  an 
union  or  free  interplay  of  structure  and  in-being,  the 
doubt  is  dispelled  by  recurring  to  the  actions  of  the  soul 
that  announce  its  highest  sense  of  a  conscience.  Mill- 
ions of  the  humblest  men  supply  this  important  ratifi- 
cation. In  that  resort,  where  a  feeling  of  dependence 
and  of  individuality  mingle  and  flow  forth  into  a  con- 
ception of  a  divine  source  of  truth,  we  recover  the 
value  of  the  phrases  we  have  used,  and  renew  our 
belief  that  they  represent  a  vital  fact.  We  may  be 
unable  to  get  any  farther  than  this  in  attempting  to 
account  for  two  freedoms  in  contact  and  yet  compati- 
ble, for  a  finite  structure  that  develops  Gift  out  of 
in-being,  and  yet  remains  an  individual.  There  is  a 
point  here  that  surpasses  the  kind  of  observation  which 
enjoys  the  benefit  of  being  explained.  Nevertheless,  it 
is  none  the  less  essential  to  the  coherence  of  all  human 
knowledge  and  experience. 

We  say,  then,  that  the  broodings  and  developments 
of  genius  result  from  the  divine  continuousness  in  the 
partial  freedoms  of  the  men  of  genius.  The  whole 
line  of  their  inheritance  represents  the  course  of  this 
continuousness,  freighted  with  the  purport  of  the  lyric, 
the  symphony,  the  intuition  of  a  law,  the  cunning  of 
machines  to  catch  and  utilize  the  elements.  No  point 
of  freedom  in  the  long  route  was  infringed  with  a  view 
to  these  results.  And  when  the  men  arrive,  the  con- 
tinuity has  arrived  also,  to  sustain  and  not  to  displace 
the  I  of  each,  as  it  develops  its  peculiar  felicity.     Its 


132  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

trials,  agonies,  and  private  difficulties  are  not  abro- 
gated. There  is  no  infinite  arrogance  of  overcoming 
and  displacement,  no  infinite  fussiness  pulling  at  the 
sleeve,  no  pressing  of  superfluous  assistance.  For 
the  structure  of  the  individual  stands  built  in  the  fore- 
thousfht  of  centuries.  The  I  loses  not  one  function, 
nor  one  disability,  by  having  its  freedom  out  of  the 
absolute  freedom  that  is  immanent.  For  its  functions 
and  disabilities  are  the  result  of  both  freedoms  w^hich 
have  been  long  at  vs^ork  up  to  this  day  of  Immanence's 
special  mood  to  nourish,  prolong,  and  transmit  that 
special  case.  And  the  more  freely  the  man  exercises 
his  function,  to  reduce  his  disabilities  of  birth  and  for- 
tune, the  greater  becomes  his  share  of  the  absolute 
freedom.  He  is  more  Goethean,  and  less  Goethe, 
than  ever.  But  he  is  not  simply  Immanence,  because 
he  is  Goethean.  He  is  not  a  pipe  for  fluting.  A  pipe 
has  no  freedom  ;  it  therefore  has  no  relation  to  the 
mood  of  fluting,  and  fluting  merely  adapts  and  adopts 
it,  blows  it,  lets  it  drop.  It  is  dead  all  the  time  it  is 
not  fluted  on.  Goethe  entertains  the  divine  mind  in 
Goethean  fashion,  and  becomes  thus  a  condition  of  its 
immanence. 

Does  the  v^rhole  of  our  special  immanence,  that  by 
which  we  live  in  our  physical  and  spiritual  entireness, 
touch  the  whole  of  us  at  the  same  moment,  as  the 
brine  excites  all  the  tentacles  of  the  star-fish  to  lift 
and  feed  ?  If  so,  what  is  its  state  or  mood,  when  any 
part  of  us  suspends  its  function  ?  does  it  treat  us  like 
plants  whose  blossoms  announce  the  climax  of  its 
visits,  and  droop  to  mark  its  stages  of  retreating.? 
This  would  be  a  too  mechanical  representation  of  the 


LAW    OF    THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  1 33 

interplay  between  structure  and  in-being.  Our  free- 
dom is  its  opportunity,  into  whatever  gift  and  with 
whatever  integrity  of  culture  and  exercise  we  invite  it. 
But  this  inviting  does  not  bring  on  submersion^  It  is 
only  freedom  conforming  to  the  law  which  it  derives 
from  absolute  freedom.  Immanence  corresponds  to 
our  spontaneousness,  but  the  latter  is  not  an  arbitrary 
dictate  of  the  former ;  rather  the  success  of  the  law 
of  immanence,  whose  condition  is  to  reach  success 
through  our  law  of  freedom. 

When  the  delicately  organized  brain  of  the  great 
thinker  or  poet  receives  the  accumulating  blood,  and 
details  it  to  the  cells  that  are  appropriate  to  the  thought 
and  emotion  that  gather  and  clamor  at  their  portals  to 
be  liberated  into  expression,  and  fixed  in  brain-fibre 
and  in  speech  at  once  and  for  ever,  a  sense  of  lifting, 
of  light  and  gladness,  penetrates  such  moments  of  cre- 
ativeness,  to  signalize  that  the  soul's  freedom  has  ad- 
mitted the  whole  of  its  in-being.  The  piled-up  expe- 
rience does  not  report  that  some  distant  or  exceptional 
inspiration  has  invaded  the  individual,  and  turned  him 
into  a  mouth-piece  for  thought  that  would  be  otherwise 
impossible  to  him.  The  flashes  and  sudden  illumina- 
tions are  often  held  to  be  the  accompaniments  of  divine 
influx  ;  and  a  lofty  style  of  egotism,  which  is  only  con- 
sciousness of  pov^er,  has  been  deceived,  during  many 
periods  of  the  world's  imperfect  self-appreciation, 
into  accepting  these  popular  marks  of  the  coming  of 
God,  and  lending  to  the  deceit  all,  the  intensity  of  per- 
sonal emotion.  The  heavens  are  opened,  the  wings 
rustle  and  descend,  the  eagle  brings  the  electric  pen 
in   its  talons,  the  sun  of  noonday  is  obscured  by  the 


134  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

lightning  conviction,  there  is  disparting,  disspreading 
overhead,  thinner  and  thinner  grows  the  vault,  and 
warmth  and  rapture  rain  through  into  a  human  ec- 
stasy. Is  a  fact  of  influx  of  a  divine  Person  thus 
translated  into  the  symbolic  imagination  of  an  indi- 
vidual, or  is  the  latter  simply  set  free  into  the  ampli- 
tude and  heat  of  his  own  structure's  highest  moment, 
as  it  invites  and  entertains  all  the  absolute  freedom 
that  is  normal  to  it?  In  this  sense  there  is  contact 
with  a  divine  Person,  but  it  is  conditioned  by  inherited 
gifts  of  structure,  advantages  of  culture,  fineness  of 
native  fibre,  build  of  the  brain's  complexity.  The  ex- 
perience of  lifting  and  gladness  is  a  moment  of  pure 
health,  when  the  man  fulfils  his  function  with  a  bold 
and  haughty  ease  ;  it  is  a  culmination  of  animal  and 
mental  spirits  in  the  trains  of  thinking  carried  on  by 
the  individual.  At  last  the  solution  comes,  and  gates 
swing  open  on  hinges  festally  sounding,  and  the  roof 
vibrates  with  its  harmony.  The  cerebral  action  passes 
into  emotion,  light,  and  power,  from  a  point  that  has 
been  bulging  with  its  life-tide  till  it  can  no  longer  be 
held  there,  but  must  pass  to  seek  its  equilibrium  again. 
These  are  the  moments  magnified  by  the  childlike 
surprise  and  egotistic  humbleness  of  all*  the  mystics, 
vision-seers,  and  special  communicationists,  into  a 
supernaturalism  that  defies  the  laws  of  structure,  and 
substitutes  a  caprice  of  its  own.  Theology  is  infested 
with  its  misleading  phrases. 

If  the  evolution  of  thought  and  feeling  depends,  on 
the  physical  side,  upon  cerebral  conditions,  then,  what- 
ever we  suppose  the  resultant  thought  to  be,  as  to  its 
substance,  may  there  not  be   a  setting  free  of  some- 


LAW    OF    THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  I35 

thing,  as  the  cerebral  contribution  passes  into  the  form 
of  thinking?  Why  not,  as  in  other  modes  of  motion, 
an  actual  experience  of  light  and  warmth?  A  smart 
blow  upon  the  skull  will  let  through  into  it  a  sky-full 
of  stars :  the  concussion  really  imparts  to  the  optic 
nerve  the  sense  of  flashes  of  light.  There  is  some 
mode  of  physical  activity  whenever  the  gray  matter  of 
the  brain  gets  so  far  as  to  arrange  itself  into  a  thought, 
and  to  fix  it  in  a  permanent  form  that  is  laid  up  for  use 
and  remembrance.  When  some  fresh  idea  or  emotion 
is  secreted,  and  the  personal  experience  receives  it  as 
a  contribution  to  its  structure,  the  moment  of  activity 
must  have  some  kind  of  physical  correlation.  Whether 
thoug-ht  be  derived  from  the  dual  action  of  brain  and 
mind,  or  whether  it  be  only  the  brain's  effervescence, 
we  might  expect  in  either  case  that  the  body's  com- 
plicity would  report  itself  in  phenomena  that  corre- 
spond, in  some  kind  of  physical  symbolism.  It  is  not 
a  groundless  caprice  that  associates  light  with  thought, 
warmth  with  emotion,  obscurity  and  mist  with  mental 
groping,  and  a  floating,  airy  joy  with  the  success  of 
every  conviction.  Nay  ;  the  brain  rises  into  its  native 
health,  even  when  there  is  no  conscious  interposition 
of  a  train  of  thought  to  help  it  climb  :  it  fills  with 
blood,  and  mantles  into  gladness.  Suddenly,  out  of 
a  neutral  condition  of  the  whole  inward  nature, 
something  soars,  like  a  lark  from  the  meadow,  and 
carols  a  surprise  from  an  open  vista,  where  just  pre- 
viously we  noticed  nothing  but  a  flat  and  opaque 
surface. 

And,  certainly,  the  highest  conscious   moments  of 
the  soul  cannot  be  all  impalpable  spirituality  ;  for  the 


136  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

soul's  moment  is  fructification,  and  that  is  a  proceed- 
ing that  depends  upon  two,  upon  the  consummation 
of  their  marriage.  The  stigmas  quiver  to  announce 
the  pollen's  touch.  We  shall  probably  find  that  all 
natural  movements  of  the  passing  of  one  thing  over 
into  another  sets  free  some  element. 

When  a  blossom  is  unfolding,  there  is  an  increase 
of  temperature  that  sometimes  amounts  to  fifty  de- 
grees ;  the  botanist  would  say  that  its  purpose  is  to 
develop  the  seed.  No  doubt ;  but  the  act  of  unfolding 
liberates  this  warmth  that  makes  the  act  known  to 
observation. 

Mr.  Kingsley,  writing  from  the  tropics,  says  that, 
so  fast  does  the  spadix  of  flowers  of  the  Monstera  ex- 
pand, "  an  actual  genial  heat  and  fire  of  passion, 
which  may  be  tested  by  the  thermometer,  or  even  by 
the  hand.  Is  given  off*  during  fructification."  So,  many 
a  soul,  journeying  out  of  Its  debatable  land,  through 
passions  of  growth  and  self-conviction,  Is  felled  at 
noonday  by  excess  of  light,  and  overhears  the  last 
words  of  Its  jDcrplexIty  and  hesitation,  as  its  own  na- 
ture escapes  from  their  persecution  and  assumes  its 
rights. 

"  Of  a  sudden  it  flashed  through  me,"  people  say. 
The  physical  effect  which  accompanies  vivid  thinking, 
particularly  where  all  the  preliminary  processes  are 
condensed  Into  one  rapid  moment,  is  thus  preserved  by 
language.  It  will  yet  be  possible  to  measure  this 
light  and  heat,  these  auroral  flittings  of  the  firmament 
of  brain. 

Thought  yearns  and  expects,  when  it  is  approaching 
Its  culmination,  as  feeling  does.     A  solution,  or  a  sug- 


LAW    OF   THE    DIVINE    IMMANENCE.  1 37 

gestion,  is  a  direct  answer  from  above  only  in  the 
sense  that  the  immanence  corresponds  to  the  whole 
process  of  freedom,  and  is  fragrant  in  the  flower 
thereof.  These  exalted  states  of  feeling,  deduction, 
revery,  meditation,  invention,  and  discoveiy,  have 
often  been  misinterpreted  into  voice,  message,  special 
invasion  of  invisible  agencies.  Some  temperaments 
are  peculiarly  susceptible  to  this  delicate  conceit 
of  superior  powers.  There  is  a  whole  orchestral 
scale  of  it.  A  tune  on  the  oboe  is  less  subtle,  pene- 
trating, soaring  and  personal,  than  the  same  tune 
upon  the  violin.  It  puts  to  the  lips  its  celebration  of 
meadow  dainties,  breathes  the  pensiveness  of  groves, 
is  haunted  by  the  wood-note  of  escaping  Syrinx.  But 
we  hug:  the  violin  close  to  the  human  bosom  that  is  a 
hive  full  of  joy,  terror,  pity,  and  despair  ;  its  seasoned 
freedom  is  offered  to  the  heart's  freedom,  one  vibration 
draws  the  line  of  immanence,  thrills  with  fitness,  but 
says  nothing  of  conquest  nor  invasion. 

What  shall  prevent  us  from  declaring  that  the  divine 
in-being  enjoys  the  raptures  of  these  moments,  when 
our  partial  freedom  runs  its  flag  up  and  reports  suc- 
cesses :  a  field  won,  an  advantage  gained,  an  intrench- 
ment  stormed  !  Immanence  must  be  in  all  liberations 
of  vital  force.  The  broader  the  finite  freedom  is,  the 
more  deeply  the  infinite  is  implicated.  And  as  it  is 
the  implication  of  a  personal  will,  it  cannot  be  impas- 
sive. Our  own  joy  is  a  gamut  on  the  infinity  of  God  ; 
and  v^hat  is  he  but  the  perfect  health  of  the  universe, 
the  only  Being  who  does  not  fall  sick  with  the  evils 
that  infest  mankind,  since  they  do  not  pertain  to  his 
absolute  condition,  but  are  mere  contingents  of  devel- 


1 3$  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

oping  structure.  Such  irrepressible  robustness  cannot 
be  conscious  of  defect.  It  is  a  divine  impartiality  that 
must  be  always  glad.  And  every  pure  joy  announces 
a  mood  of  something  that  is  prevalent  in  the  vicinity : 
not  a  joy  superposed  or  interpolated,  but  June,  that 
"  climbs  to  a  soul  in  grass  and  flowers." 


VI. 

A   DIVINE   PERSON. 

WE  have  said  that  the  tendency  ot  American  Re- 
ligion should  be  to  establish  some  necessary 
truths  that  express  real  organic  relations  between  the 
finite  and  the  infinite.  To  force  or  pretend  a  belief  in 
more  than  these  would  be  to  overload  the  soul  with 
superfluous  baggage.  But  to  abandon  any  one  of  these 
would  be  to  throw  away  a  personal  necessity.  Whether 
man  advances  or  retreats,  the  day's  march  is  a  strict 
commissary,  and  serves  out  exactly  what  he  needs. 
The  march  is,  indeed,  the  stubborn  experience  that  dis- 
covers the  rule  of  the  commissariat.  Before  people 
start,  they  put  up  many  a  whimsey  which  they  expect  to 
find  comfortable  on  occasion  ;  but  a  few  peremptory 
days  make  them  abandon  these  one  after  the  other  with 
sighs  of  regret  which  soon  change  to  congratulations. 
In  the  old  rambling  mansion  of  theology,  even  the 
warming-pans  and  foot-stoves  of  shivering  generations 
are  hoarded  up  :  now  and  then  they  are  brought  out  to 
cosset  some  valetudinarian.  But  motion  itself  is  the 
improved  warming  apparatus  to  an  army  in  the  field. 
The  vital  functions  of  the  individual  are  his  body  of 
divinity ;  they  comprise  the  articles  of  his  faith,  and 
refer  him  to  its  objects. 


140 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


We  are  prepared  to  see  that  a  divine  Person  is  an 
object  that  closely  corresponds  to  necessities  of  the  in- 
dividual, notwithstanding  a  wide  feeling  which  exists, 
in  circles  where  science  or  indifference  disclaim  them, 
that  the  organic  evolution  of  Force  does  everybody's 
business  with  sufficient  promptness,  economy  and  ad- 
vantasfe.  This  evolution  of  force  has  not  been  denied 
by  us ;  it  has,  on  the  contrary,  been  assumed  as  the 
nerve-system  that  pervades  the  whole  surface,  but 
gathers  into  ganglia  deep  towards  the  centre  where 
in-beinj:  touches  and  controls  it.  The  law  of  in-beino^ 
depends  upon  its  inediation  through  all  the  structures 
of  the  universe. 

But  the  in-being  is  not  merely  another  force  behind 
a  force  ;  it  must  have  essential  Personality  because  all 
its  manifestations  presume  intelligence  and  will.  When 
the  word  Person  is  applied  to  the  infinite  being,  it  is 
apt  to  carry  over  the  idea  of  limitation  from  our  expe- 
rience of  individuals.  After  we  have  called  a  man  a 
person,  we  shrink  from  using  the  word  to  convey  the 
conception  that  there  is  a  vital  consciousness  in  God, 
until  we  learn  that  limitation  is  not  essentially  connoted 
by  it.  The  divine  Being  is  sometimes  said  to  be  im- 
personal, in  order  to  prevent  the  grandest  of  our  con- 
ceptions from  becoming  impounded  in  a  term  that 
belongs  to  our  finite  life.  But  when  the  word  Person 
is  rightly  defined  we  see  that  the  epithet  imperso7ial 
denies  its  essential  infinity,  remands  in-being  back  into 
the  category  of  force,  and  strips  it  of  intelligence  and 
will.  The  epithet  may  be  used  by  people  who  intend 
to  preserve  these  attributes,  and  are  far  from  conceiving 
that  God  is  a  mode  of  force,  or  a  soul  of  the  world ; 


A    DIVINE    PERSON.  I4I 

both  pantheism  and  anthropomorphism  are  out  of 
favor  with  them,  and  zjjzpersonal  ^Qevas  to  assert  neither. 
In  preserving  the  idea  of  infinity  it  releases  God  from 
limitations.  But  it  imposes  the  fatal  limitation  of 
emptying  all  consciousness  out  of  this  infinity.  It 
secures  vastness  at  the  expense  of  qualities  that  make 
the  vastness  worth  having,  and  available  for  creative 
objects.  Common  sense  pays  a  tribute  to  the  value  of 
the  word  person  when  it  instinctively  judges  that  the 
epithet  i77ipei'sonal  takes  an  object  out  of  the  domain 
of  volition.  So  it  is  no  matter  what  is  sometimes 
implied  by  people  who  use  it :  they  cannot  combine 
their  implication  with  the  organic  sense  of  the  epithet, 
for  it  will  not  bear  the  weight  of  any  quality  that  be- 
longs to  Person. 

We  attribute  Personality  to  the  divine  Being  because 
we  cannot  otherwise  refer  to  any  source  the  phenomena 
that  show  Will  and  Intellect.  Person  is  no  more  limit- 
ing than  Being:  but  it  is  deeper  by  the  whole  con- 
tents of  the  idea  of  consciousness.  None  of  our 
abstract  words  for  existence,  continuance,  immanence, 
meet  the  exactions  of  this  problem  ;  which  is,  that  if 
we  reach  consciousness  we  must  have  started  from 
something  conscious,  if  we  rise  to  volition  it  must  be 
from  the  pressure  of  some  source  of  Will,  if  we  per- 
ceive and  exercise  intelligence  the  supply  must  have 
been  derived  from  Intellect.  Find  a  word  that  shall  be 
a  symbol  of  the  vital  coexistence  of  qualities  whence 
our  personal  experience  is  derived. 

Person  ought  to  be  the  greatest,  most  venerable  word  : 
its  equivalent  in  every  language  might  supplant  all  the 
synonyms  of  God.     For  it  says,  I  Am. 


1^2  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

Its  Latin  etymology  betrays  that  it  once  denoted  the 
opposite  of  this,  for  persona  was  the  mask  used  by 
Greek  and  Roman  actors,  who  voiced  their  feigned 
emotions  through  it.  It  must  be  brought  out  of  this 
disguise,  and  accede  to  kingly  senses ;  for  nothing  is 
more  real  and  positive,  more  legitimately  heir  to  a 
throne,  than  the  freedom  of  a  man's  Conscience,  Intel- 
lect and  Will.  Nowadays  the  mask  is  the  individual, 
through  which  the  unfeigned  person  sounds. 

When  we  say,  an  infinite  Person,  we  do  not  suggest 
mfinity  within  limits,  but  volition  and  intelligence 
without  them.  Neighbors  have  a  trick  of  calling  each 
other  persons,  when  they  mean  people  or  individuals 
with  Christian  names ;  they  are,  therefore,  unprepared 
to  discover  that  every  one  of  these  people  touches 
infinity  with  his  least  individual  and  limited  qualities, 
those  immediately  derived  from  the  divine  freedom, 
and  can  furnish  this  freedom  with  its  name.  We  need 
not  be  prevented,  then,  by  common  usage,  from  lift- 
ing all  limits  away  from  the  word  Person,  that  it 
may  be  competent  to  represent  consciousness  raised  to 
infinity.  If  in-being  had  not  been  always  Personal,  it 
never  would  have  been  in  any  thing :  or  rather,  noth- 
ing would  have  been.  Each  man's  creative  instinct  is 
the  continuous  explanation  of  the  origins  of  things. 

The  theologians  dread  the  epithet  iiiipersonal  be- 
cause they  are  interested  to  sustain  the  old  theories  of 
special  providences  and  interventions,  and  need  an 
individual  who  can  step  spryly  out  and  into  history, 
and  be  on  time  to  a  second  to  modify  the  natural  order 
with  whimsical  fertility  of  afterthoughts  and  supple- 
ments.    This  is  the  Napoleon-Paul-Pr}^  of  the  super- 


A    DIVINE    PERSON.  1 43 

naturalists.  Such  a  God  is  not  a  Person,  but  a  creature 
as  large  as  the  scheme  of  supernatural  dogmatics : 
certainly  no  more  extensive  than  the  earth  and  its 
chronology,  and  his  chief  use  is  to  sustain  the  credit  of 
miraculous  narratives,  and  to  prevent  chimpanzees 
from  aspiring  to  be  men.  Theology  is  right  in  saying 
that  if  God  be  called  impersonal  he  is  emptied  of  vi- 
tality and  put  into  a  row  of  forces.  But  when  we  call 
him  a  Person  we  do  not  share  the  anxiety  of  the 
theologian  to  have  a  definite  Life  for  the  sake  of  the 
plan  of  redemption.  Miracles  and  irruptions  have  now 
been  superfluous  for  a  long  time,  as  long  as  an  infinite 
Person  has  existed.  During  that  time  he  has  imparted 
his  original  Unity  to  the  finite  order,  and  saved  us  the 
trouble  and  mortification  of  trying  to  eke  out  its  uni- 
formity. 

In  Goethe's  poem,  the  gentle  Margaret  would  fain 
commit  Faust  to  a  statement  of  belief  in  a  God  ;  but 
the  poet's  dread  of  limitations  replies,  that  name  is 
but  sound  and  smoke  o'er-misting  heaven's  glow.  But 
when  our  highest  integrity  of  life  utters  the  name  of  its 
kinship  with  the  infinite,  every  verbal  dexterity  falls 
oft'  like  manners  of  the  individual  in  moments  of  pro- 
found sincerity,  and  the  essence  of  the  reality  lets  itself 
be  touched. 

This  is  not  naming,  but  rather  indicating  by  a  sym- 
bol, the  direction  where  in-being  may  be  found.  The 
old  guide-board  that  insists  only  upon  the  name  of  the 
next  town  will  set  the  traveller  around  the  world.  We 
are  content  with  knowing  what  tendency  opens  at  last 
into  the  space  where  the  original  of  our  own  conscious- 
ness awaits  us. 


144  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

When  two  friends  in  old  Greece  parted,  for  journey- 
ing or  war,  a  ring  was  severed,  and  each  took  half  of 
it  away  with  him.  At  their  next  meeting  the  first  act, 
before  a  word  would  be  spoken,  was  to  fit  the  two 
halves  together,  and  restore  the  symbol  of  their  faith- 
fulness. Our  word  sy7?ibol  comes  from  that  word, 
sumballo^  to  put  together ;  and  the  Greek  ring  encir- 
cles the  friendship  that  all  signs  have  for  truths. 

So  mankind,  parting  long  ago  from  the  unnamed 
Deity,  went  into  the  first  turmoil  and  uncertainty  of 
living,  and  appeared  overborne  and  indifierent  to  that 
half  of  a  pledge  which  had  been  exchanged,  its  latent 
capacity  to  make  a  Person  out  of  an  individual.  The 
journey  ends,  the  return  is  made,  the  affinity  pro- 
claimed with  delight  that  absence  sharpened,  when 
the  finite  person,  discovering  himself,  rounds  himself 
against  the  infinite  ;  the  perfect  faith  is  a  perfect  fit, 
and  no  w^ords  that  pass  can  lend  it  any  quality. 

Did  my  life  indeed  ascend, 
Or  some  Life  sink  down  to  me? 
All  I  know,  it  was  my  friend  : 
Name  it,  shape  it?    Let  that  be. 

When  the  individual  sets  whatever  gift  he  has  into 
personal  freedom,  recovering  it  from  the  whim  and 
manner  by  which  he  is  known  among  men,  and  is 
thought  of  by  them  as  soon  as  his  name  is  heard,  he 
begins  to  build  a  consciousness  of  Deity,  and  to  per- 
ceive that  it  is  necessary  to  his  life.  No  argument 
from  nature,  or  from  the  marks  of  design  in  creation, 
can  reach  so  high.  Scientific  method  can  demon- 
strate the  unity  and  constant  presence  of  divine  intelli- 


A    DIVINE    PERSON.  I45 

gence,  but  then  has  to  wait  for*  the  individual  to  droj:) 
the  key-stone  of  his  personal  freedom  into  that  arch 
over  which  the  finite  and  infinite  pass  to  and  fro. 

A  good  deal  of  our  time  is  spent  in  the  ordinary  life 
which  we  inherit  from  physical  conditions  ;  we  cannot 
call  it  wasted  time,  for  it  piques  us  to  recover  our 
freedom,  hampers  and  teases  us  as  if  on  purpose  to 
make  us  turn  upon  it  and  bid  it  respect  the  presence 
of  a  superior.  Our  most  individual  and  least  inde- 
pendent instincts  grow  hufi:y  and  important  in  the 
crowd  that  streams  through  the  street,  where  each 
must  jostle  each  for  its  right  of  way.  I  am  John,  —  I 
am  Peter :  my  time  and  interest  are  as  valuable  as 
yours ;  let  me  pass.  What  a  passage,  as  of  some 
migrating  nomadic  horde  of  conceits  and  assump- 
tions, anxious  to  get  into  a  fair  pasture  land  to  stake 
out  their  claim  !  — past  we  go,  dickering  in  town  poli- 
tics, outwitting  in  caucuses,  and  subscribing  money 
to  buy  up  the  floating  vote  ;  scrutinizing  each  other's 
motives,  garments,  food,  and  drink,  with  ridiculous 
phrases  of  mutual  de]Dreciation  that  are  blown  away 
by  the  first  real  benefit ;  jealously  cheapening  each 
other's  goods,  from  a  pound  of  spice  to  a  lyric's  flavor ; 
dreading  too  much  success,  hawking  at  too  high  and 
smooth  a  wing :  a  mob  of  voices  getting  hoarse  over 
the  right  to  a  cesspool,  or  the  direction  of  a  drain,  or 
a  millennial  text ;  disputing  in  vestries  about  the  num- 
bers in  Daniel,  the  spokes  in  Ezekiel's  wheels,  mutual 
goring  with  the  horns  of  any  apocalyptic  beast ;  for- 
midable scrupulousness  about  the  cut  of  each  other's 
nails,  and  stealthy  watching  behind  the  door  of  decen- 
cies to  catch  some  one  betraying  his  weakness  ;  gath- 

7 


146  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

ering  with  cheap  lanterns  and  brass  to  bid  somebody's 
shiftiness  show  itself  at  the  windows,  and  neatly  recom- 
mend others  to  be  shifty  ;  zeal  to  favor  a  few  isolated 
traits  that  express  the  soul's  least  estimable  gifts,  and 
to  get  each  other  baptized  or  placarded  with  them,  to 
pass  as  such  instead  of  upon  our  real,  though  remoter, 
value;  —  these  civic  tricks  and  prejudices  hurry  indi- 
viduals through  the  world,  as  if  a  rescue  by  the  Person 
were  dreaded  before  the  grave  can  be  reached. 

People  live  so  close  together  that  they  spindle  and 
suffer  in  the  general  strength  of  their  character.  Some- 
times the  injury  makes  them  appear  very  ragged  and 
unlovely  ;  yet  all  the  while  they  may  be  holding  aloft 
in  clear  air  topmost  features  which  solicit  the  sun  and 
rain  of  heaven.  One  who  rides  from  South-West  Har-. 
bor  to  Bar  Harbor,  in  Mt.  Desert,  will  see  a  grove  in 
which  the  pines  stand  so  close  that  all  the  branches 
have  withered  two-thirds  of  the  way  up  the  trunks, 
and  are  nothing  but  dead  sticks,  broken  and  dangling. 
But  every  tree  bears  close,  each  to  each,  its  evergreen 
crown  ;  and  they  seem  to  make  a  floor  for  the  day  to 
walk  upon. 

This  pavement  for  the  feet  of  heaven,  more  precious 
than  the  fancied  one  of  New  Jerusalem,  stretches  all 
around  the  world,  above  the  thickets  of  our  spiny  ego- 
tism, where  people  run  up  into  the  only  coherence  upon 
which  it  is  safe  for  Deity  to  tread. 

But  our  life  has  not  been  so  dismantled  by  mortality 
that  we  cannot  find  traces  that  Deity  has  dwelt  here, 
and  plainly  intends  to  again  :  perhaps  it  is  in  the  next 
room,  and  our  hand  has  been  so  often  on  the  latch,  but 
some  stir  below  forbade  us  to  enter.     When  a  blazing 


A    DIVINE    PERSON.  I47 

hour  scorches  these  packthreads  which  we  call  Soci- 
ety, and  our  freed  members  recover  natural  move- 
ments, so  that  we  turn  towards  each  other,  break  the 
armed  truce  of  our  conceits,  and  embrace  in  a  fashion 
Defore  unheard  of  in  our  polished  isolation,  so  closely 
that  all  hearts  transmit  the  one  blood  of  which  we  are 
made,  and  a  flush  of  conviction  outruns  the  planet's 
dawn,  —  then  we  overtake  the  indwelling  Freedom,  set 
free  into  it  our  personal  power,  and  become  a  unity 
that  shares  organic  laws.  It  is  an  experience  of  that 
wholeness  of  gift  and  feeling  to  which  a  divine,  pres- 
ence corresponds. 

When  the  powerful  vibrations  of  music  shake  down 
our  bars,  and  we  are  released  to  each  other,  or  the 
upliftings  of  great  speech  take  our  feet  from  the 
ground,  and  we  can  no  longer  stand  braced  in  resist- 
ance, but  conspire  into  the  wave  of  the  orator's  per- 
suasion, we  are  in  the  temper  of  Deity.  It  is  never 
strange  at  such  moments  to  find  all  the  petty  individu- 
als believing  in  God,  unconsciously  translating  the  oc- 
casion into  the  conviction  that  gathers  and  crushes  all 
the  clusters  of  all  souls.  God  is  the  cup  that  catches 
that  life's  wine.  We  taste  our  own  unadulterated 
flavor. 

A  beautiful  action  wins  a  town's  sympathy,  and  all 
the  people  exchange  congratulations,  having  been  so 
dazzled  into  forgetting  surnames  that  they  run  to- 
gether. The  moral  order  of  eternity  is  let  through 
into  time,  and  never  returns.  Individuals  hold  the 
door,  but  the  stronger  people  get  it  open,  and  a  Person 
enters  with  the  quality  or  eminence  of  the  moment. 
Moral  routine  that  represses  every  individual  trait  for 


I4S  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

the  sake  of  a  household,  a  town,  a  commonwealth,  is 
not  stunted  by  the  narrowness  and  severity  of  the  act, 
but  the  universal  advantage  seems  to  repay  it,  by  con- 
tributing extent  to  the  nature  of  the  actor,  together 
with  all  the  symmetry  which  his  sacrifice  won  from 
the  dull  material.  This  obscure  moral  service  creates 
for  the  individual  a  personality  as  large  as  the  neigh- 
borhood of  souls  who  have  been  improved  by  him. 
He  cannot  occupy  so  much  space  without  including  a 
sense  of  Deity. 

We  are  the  persons  who  make  this  Person  essential 
to  us  by  living  divinely.  It  is  a  deduction  which  de- 
velops when  moral  and  spiritual  gifts  are  set  free  :  they 
pass  into  the  certitude  of  a  personal  Will  and  Intelli- 
gence, because  we  have  been  living  on  that  scale. 
The  alternative  is  to  sink  back  into  the  individual,  and 
nurse  its  physical  and  animal  predilections ;  the  ele- 
ments suffice  for  that,  and  the  mind  rises  no  higher 
than  the  notion  of  a  Force. 

It  is  essential  for  Religion  to  have  not  only  the  ab- 
stract term,  a  First  Cause,  that  will  satisfy  the  mind 
when  it  attempts  to  account  for  itself,  its  structure,  its 
mode  of  activity,  its  relation  to  the  world,  but  a  divine 
Person,  to  be  the  mind's  qualifying  ground  and  sub- 
stance, the  personal  unity  that  endows  all  the  units 
with  a  sense  of  being  persons.  He  is  not  only  the 
cause  of  our  being  here,  but  He  keeps  us  here,  and 
everywhere,  the  essence  of  our  mental  and  moral 
unity  continually  guaranteeing  our  structure,  and 
reaching  through  that  to  proof  of  Himself  in  our  pri- 
vate freedom.  So  that  it  is  the  sacredness  of  the 
individual  that  endows  in-being  with  Personality.     It 


A    DIVINE    PERSON. 


149 


must  become  one  of  the  organic  truths  of  American 
Reh'gion. 

At  this  point,  if  at  any  in  the  argument,  a  claim 
might  be  admitted  in  favor  of  the  instinct  that  the 
death  of  the  body  does  not  suspend  or  destroy  personal 
continuance.  It  Is  objected,  that  no  thought  and  feel- 
ing have  ever  yet  been  displayed  independently  of 
cerebral  condition ;  they  must  have  brain,  either  to 
originate  or  to  announce  them.  If  brain  be  source  or 
instrument  of  human  consciousness,  what  preserves  it 
vvhen  the  brain  is  dead  ?  But  there  would  have  been 
no  universe  on  such  terms  as  that.  What  supplied 
infinite  mind  with  its  preliminary  sine  qua  non  of 
brain-matter?  All  worlds  and  objects  are  the  lobes 
that  waste  and  renew  to  express  the  moods  of  their 
Creator.  Surely  matter  did  not  convene  and  organize 
for  the  production  of  a  divine  consciousness  ;  and  to 
suppose  the  contemporaneous  eternity  of  both  does  not 
impair  the  advantage  which  our  own  will  ascribes  to 
a  Creator's  will. 

To  the  scientific  dictum,  "  No  Mind  without  Brain," 
we  are  disposed  to  respond  with  the  universe  itself, 
that  Infinite  equivalent  to  the  phrase,  "  No  Brain  with- 
out Mind."  And  If  the  finite  Intellect  shows  marks  of 
identity  with  the  divine,  by  admitting  and  interpreting 
the  laws  of  things  and  the  unity  of  their  development, 
It  must  be  an  Identity  that  shares  the  creative  advan- 
tage of  finding  its  own  brains.  The  universe  teaches 
us  that  If  one  centre  of  force  becomes  dissipated,  it  is 
only  a  movement  which  creates  another,  and  reestab- 
lishes Its  advantage.  As  fast  as  elementary  forces  are 
driven  out  of  business,  they  set  up  afresh,  and  not  one 


150  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

bankruptcy  occurs.  No  man  need  trouble  bimself  to 
rise  from  the  dead  to  tell  us  on  a  small  scale  what  the 
heavens  declare  with  a  mighty  fugue  and  interj^lay  of 
voice.  Through  all  its  transformations  the  world 
always  weighs  the  same,  and  not  a  spark  of  vital 
agency  is  filched.  "  To  say  that  life  is  the  result  of 
organization  is  to  say  that  the  builders  of  a  house  are 
its  results." 

There  is  a  great  deal  about  an  individual  man  that 
is  not  worth  saving,  and  he  will  rejoice  to  be  well  rid 
of  it  at  last,  for  it  is  a  legacy  from  inferior  structures, 
which  he  will  eventually  make  superfluous.  Heaven 
would  be  a  menagerie  if  his  tricks  and  gibberings 
got  into  it,  a  blustering  amplification  of  traits  which 
we  already  find  intolerable.  But  they  have  not  per- 
sonal vitality  enough  to  set  up  housekeeping  in  that 
other  place,  dear  to  the  mythological  heart ;  man- 
kind's meanness  has  not  yet  grown  viciously  virile 
enough  to  start  a  hell,  even  had  God  a  hankering  for 
one. 

We  say  of  some  men  that  they  dare  not  or  cannot  call 
their  souls  their  own.  If  it  were  true  that  they  could 
not,  owing  to  a  structure  that  declined  the  task  of  be- 
coming a  person,  or  to  one  that  represented  rudimen- 
tary and  idiotic  conditions,  it  would  be  also  true  that 
God  could  not  call  them  his.  When  we  observe  that 
some  elephants  are  more  sagacious  than  some  men, 
the  suspicion  intrudes  that  they  are  more  valuable 
by  so  much  ivory,  and  that  even  a  divine  mind  could 
not  utilize  the  men.  All  the  phenomena  of  trivial  and 
sordid  living  deceive  our  own  conceit  into  presuming 
that  God  has  a  preference  for  us.     But  what   man  is 


A   DIVINE    PERSON.  151 

good  enough  for  God  ?  Not  one  ;  but  all  the  men  are, 
and  their  number  at  any  time  is  the  precise  equivalent 
of  his  preference,  for  the  lowest  unit  of  this  collective 
mankind  must  have  a  germ  of  personality  that  reports 
his  own  failure  to  himself,  in  a  very  groping  and  forest 
fashion,  doubtless,  yet  not  destitute  of  expectation. 
Despair  itself  is  an  investment  of  the  person. 

The  individual  may  become  disintegrated  Without 
damage  to  the  personality  which  resides  in  him  to 
secure  to  the  divine  life  some  contact  with  him.  What- 
ever apprehends  or  guesses  that  proximity  must  be  at 
least  as  permanent  as  the  matter  of  the  world  which 
shifts  out  and  into  physical  conditions. 

But  we  can  leave  this  problem  to  take  care  of  itself, 
for  nothing  is  so  sure  as  death.  Nothing  is  surer  than 
that  either  something  or  nothing  succeeds  death. 
Everybody  will  therefore  be  conscious  quite  soon,  or 
be  unconscious,  that  personal  continuance  is  a  vital 
fact.  It  is  a  waste  of  time  to  be  over-curious  or 
anxious  about  a  solution  which  a  few  years  will  secure 
for  our  experience.  For  it  is  no  more  essential  to  good 
living  to  acquire  some  proof  of  life  in  the  future  than 
it  is  to  prove  metaphysically  that  we  are  alive  in  the 
present.  If  proofs  or  probabilities  of  immortality  ex- 
ist, they  are  so  involved  with  truth  of  intellect  and 
character,  that  they  become  identical  with  the  fact  that 
we  are  alive.  What  can  enhance  the  reality  of  being 
actually  alive  ? 

The  bare  belief  in  a  continued  existence  ennobles 
man  less  than  the  personality  that  secures  the  fact.  It 
is  the  amount  of  his  moral  and  spiritual  character,  and 
it  is  already  possessed  by  crowds  of  disinterested  peo- 


152  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

pie  who  most  vehemently  deny  that  they  have  any 
corresponding  instinct,  and  justly  refuse  to  regulate 
their  behaviors  by  the  popular  sentiments  of  reward 
and  retribution  that  are  connected  with  it.  The  most 
important  thing  is  to  become  such  persons  of  the  uni- 
verse that  it  would  stint  the  plan,  and  be  wasteful,  to 
extinguish  us. 

Who  does  not  become  so  ?  What  arbiter  will  draw 
the  line.'*  What  odious  aristocrat  of  virtue  can  em- 
bezzle the  universal  opportunity.^ 

"  Oh,  that  a  man  might  know 
The  end  of  this  day's  business,  ere  it  come! 
But  it  sufficeth  that  the  day  will  end, 
And  thGjn  the  end  is  known." 

Let  US  serenely  resume  the  argument  for  the  neces- 
sity of  a  divine  Person. 

Religion  has  always  tried  to  endow  the  divine  Per- 
sonality with  a  consciousness  that  reaches  through 
Will  and  Intelligence  into  a  mood  that  corresponds  to 
human  sympathy.  It  is  worth  while  to  see  if  this 
be  a  permanent  instinct  of  human  nature  which  the 
facts  can  justify  and  our  own  personal  relations  can 
explain. 

What  becomes  of  the  heart's  old  secret,  that  there  is 
something  like  paternal  regard  for  us,  in  this  flood  of 
common-sense  that  is  beginning  to  cover  all  intelligent 
countries,  to  deposit  facts  and  fruitful  germs  of  truth 
about  the  divine  order?  Does  the  flood  run  down  into 
the  heart  and  drown  out  its  secret,  or  is  that  left  to  brood 
there  in  the  darkness,  still  alive,  but  languishing  and 
growing  bloodless  every  day  for  w\ant  of  light  and  air? 
In  former  times  there  was  hardly  a  circumstance  that 


A    DIVINE    PERSON.  1 53 

did  not  help  to  feign  a  personal  sympathy  of  God  for 
man.  Some  divine  agency  had  the  contract  to  furnish 
corn  and  wine,  to  keep  the  pestilence  subdued,  to  blunt 
the  arrows  of  the  elements,  to  provide  antidotes  to  all 
poisonous  things.  Men  trusted  to  a  fatherly  interfer- 
ence. If,  notwithstanding  this,  they  continued  to  suffer, 
the  fact  did  not  disturb  their  faith,  because  it  was  im- 
mediately interpreted  to  be  a  sign  of  the  aversion  and 
anger  of  the  ruling  powder ;  and  they  cast  about  to  dis- 
cover what  could  have  been  the  cause  of  the  aversion, 
to  remove  it,  if  possible,  and  restore  the  ordinary  com- 
fort and  immunity.  Worship  began  in  this  effort  to 
propitiate  the  invisible,  and  to  make  atonement  for 
real  or  fancied  sins.  For  men  have  always  cherished 
a  fond  notion  that  heaven  takes  regular  and  unremit- 
ting care  of  them  ;  the  more  ignorant  they  are,  the 
more  uncompromisingly  is  this  interest  attributed  to  a 
God.  Children  confide,  and  give  themselves  riglit  up 
to  the  parent ;  sensible  of  their  own  inadequateness  to 
meet  the  wants  of  their  organization,  they  make  over 
the  whole  business  to  superior  intelligence,  with  a 
sweetness  and  loyalty  that  always  endow  that  intelli- 
gence with  love,  even  where  that  attribute  is  very 
scanty  or  does  not  exist  at  all. 

Now  the  case  is  altering  every  day.  Knowledge  of 
invariable  causes  and  effects  has  gone  on,  dislodging 
a  divine  person  from  one  fact  after  another,  driving  it 
to  the  rear,  disenchanting  everything,  and  substituting 
consistent  operation  in  the  place  of  personal  care.  This 
has  made  the  art  of  living  vastly  more  easy,  but  it  has 
made  the  problem  of  the  Infinite  Father  more  difficult 
to  solve.     For  with  all  our  increase  of  comfort,  superi- 


154  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

ority  to  physical  influences,  ability  to  detect  and  baffle 
whatsoever  is  injurious  to  us,  it  is  just  as  pathetic  as 
ever  to  be  alive  ;  we  are  just  as  likely  to  become  actors 
in  some  tragedy  that  tells  how  a  body  or  a  soul  may  be 
discomfited,  with  no  help  for  it,  so  far  as  we  can  see, 
from  any  paternal  interference,  as  the  old  Hebrew  was 
w^ho  thought  his  fathers  had  eaten  sour  grapes,  or  the 
old  Greek  who  believed  the  same  doctrine  and  called 
it  Fate.  We  know  enough  about  natural  and  moral 
causes  to  perceive,  very  often  when  it  is  too  late,  that 
our  help  would  have  been  in  avoiding  something,  or 
accepting  something.  "  If  we  had  only  known  at  the 
time,"  we  say.  But  how  futile  and  irrational  that  is, 
with  all  its  show  of  reason.  It  is  "  a  ship's  stern-light 
that  illuminates  nothing  but  the  w^ake." 

If  the  Algerines  had  only  known,  a  few  years  ago, 
that  certain  districts  would  be  famine-stricken,  they 
might  have  decamped  :  but  staying  on  where  they  were, 
and  expecting  the  annual  average  of  rain,  it  happened 
that  mothers  became  cannibals,  and  served  up  their 
children  as  the  old  Jewish  mothers  did  during  the  siege 
of  Titus.  Providence  must  seem  to  a  great  many  mis- 
erable persons  like  a  state  of  siege  :  they  have  eaten 
every  thing  from  meat  to  vermin  and  old  leather, 
gnawed  themselves  barefoot  and  swallowed  the  saddles 
upon  which  they  rode  :  yet  the  enemy  still  holds  the 
lines  of  hunger.  The  miserable  people  totter  to  their 
battlements  of  belief,  and  scan  the  horizon  for  succor : 
sometimes  they  see  a  cloud  of  dust  no  bigger  than  a 
man's  hand,  and  sometimes  the  landscape  has  the  cruel 
smile  of  emptiness.  Which  is  the  Heavenly  Father,  the 
advancing  cloud  that  does  not  always  succeed  in  sweep- 


A    DIVINE    PERSON.  1 55 

ing  off  the  enemy,  or  the  barren  outlook  that  does  not 
even  show  a  pretence  of  relief  ? 

In  reducing  life  to  rule  we  have  ruled  out  the  per- 
sonal sym^^athy  of  the  Lord  of  Life.  How  many  ages 
went  down  on  their  knees  before  the  cause  of  thunder, 
to  make  interest  in  behalf  of  their  effects  and  dwell- 
ings :  but  it  blasted  on  every  hand  according  to  a  will 
of  its  own,  and  rolled  deafening  against  all  human 
expostulations.  Now  comes  along  Poor  Richard,  the 
apostle  of  Common  Sense,  puts  his  knuckle  to  a  key 
that  dangles  at  the  wire-end  of  a  kite,  and  down  comes 
the  mystery,  hauled  to  earth  by  a  plaything.  Of  what 
use  are  prayers?  God  says  virtually,  "A  rod  to  con- 
duct is  more  to  the  point  —  prayers  at  any  rate  are  out 
of  fashion."  But  the  rod  will  also  play  its  tricks,  so 
that  half  mankind  is  undecided  whether  it  invites  or 
disarms  the  fluid.  When  a  rusty  nail  or  an  imperfect 
connection  is  discovered,  the  survivors  of  a  house  that 
has  been  struck  exclaim,  "  Oh,  if  we  had  only  kn^wn 
it  in  time  !  "  How  inexorable,  then,  is  the  Infinite  Care. 
The  weather  that  helps  the  crops  to  grow,  and  fills  the 
woods  and  fields  with  gladness  for  all  flower-hunters 
and  those  who  linger  hand  in  hand  with  friendship, 
has  rotted  away  the  rod  at  its  connection,  and  the  bolt 
leaps  into  a  cradle.  What  have  we  gained  with  all 
our  knowledge?  It  has  made  our  life  in  some  respects 
mare  tragic  than  ever,  for  it  has  imported  new  elements 
into  the  pursuit  of  comfort  and  intelligence.  Steam 
carries  a  hundred  midnight  sleepers,  women  and  chil- 
dren, to  a  spot  where  a  snake-head  waits  for  them,  and 
over  they  go,  with  but  a  shriek  between  sleep  and 
death  :  then  fire  licks  and  swallows  them.     Is  it  not  as 


156  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

tragic  as  a  day  before  the  walls  of  Troy?  Less  noble, 
because  not  caused  by  the  daring  to  death  of  men  who 
are  wide  awake  and  measuring  their  dangers  with 
every  glance  :  but  far  more  piteous,  far  more  accusing 
to  our  faith  in  the  divine  order.  We  can  stand  a  trag- 
edy that  steps  forth  in  garments  rolled  in  the  blood  of 
our  own  self-surrender.  When  a  thousand  negroes  are 
willing  to  follow  Shaw  up  the  glacis  of  Fort  Wagner, 
10  dig  with  bayonets  their  own  glorious  grave  together 
in  the  heat  of  that  fraternal  patriotism,  we  deliberately 
prefer  the  absence  of  the  divine  interference  ;  or  we 
hail  the  tragedy  itself  as  the  divine  presence  emphasiz- 
ing itself  and  announcing  its  regard  for  the  country's 
future.  But  at  any  rate  the  thousand  graves  grow 
green  with  our  heart's  spring-feeling,  and  not  a  house 
in  the  republic  now  regrets  the  blood  it  furnished. 
But  when  somebody  invents  the  compound  called 
nitro-gl3'cerine,  and  commercial  greed  ships  it  to  a 
populous  port  neglecting  the  cautiousness  that  is  pro- 
claimed and  reiterated  by  all  the  freaks  of  the  elements, 
we  call  the  result  a  massacre  ;  the  piteousness  of  it 
recoils  upon  Providence  :  we  forget  all  the  tender  texts, 
and  the  next  time  we  go  to  sea,  or  take  passage  by  the 
rails,  we  consider  that  we  have  taken  shares  in  a  great 
consolidated  lottery,  quite  aware  that  our  number  may 
draw  a  blank. 

This^  however,  we  have  settled :  mankind  has  suf- 
fered enough  to  settle  that  there  is  an  invariable  effect 
to  every  invariable  cause,  and  that  it  is  better  to  ap- 
proximate as  fast  and  far  as  possible  to  finding  what  it 
is.  But  this  very  tendency  has  an  effect,  too,  upon 
the  religious  sensibility,  to  deaden  its  old-fashioned  idea 


A   DIVINE    PERSON.  157 

that  there  is  something  personal  just  the  other  side  of 
all  phenomena,  something  that  manifests  itself  but  is 
distinct  from  the  manifesting,  —  that  does  things  glad 
or  grievous,  but  is  not  the  same  things  itself,  not  swal- 
lowed up  and  lost  in  them,  not  laws  and  forces,  but  a 
lawgiver  and  a  fountain  of  force  :  an  Infinite  Will  that 
wills  everything  finite,  but  that  does  it  all  the  time 
with  some  sort  of  personal  apprehension  and  feeling, 
in  a  condition  of  being  that  corresponds  in  some  way 
to  our  words  love,  pity,  oversight,  sympathy,  consider- 
ateness.  We  are  on  the  road  to  discover  that  God's 
most  perfect  considerateness  was  shown  by  him  in 
the  original  devising  of  the  laws  of  the  world  ;  but  the 
knowledge  that  is  showing  this  drifts  in  the  direction 
of  emptying  all  personal  feeling  out  of  this  original 
devising,  until  the  considerateness  appears  as  hard  as 
a  contract  which  a  man  takes  to  clothe  and  victual  an 
army,  to  run  a  machine  to  the  greatest  profit  at  the 
least  expense,  to  govern  a  school  by  system  and  not 
by  personal  character.  The  heart  recoils  from  this  to 
such  an  extent  that  a  great  many  people,  influenced  by 
reaction  against  the  cold,  mechanical  theory  of  the 
universe,  refuse  to  know  any  thing  more,  do  not  care 
to  follow  the  steps  of  intelligence,  cry  out  for  love  and 
grasp  at  the  straw  of  a  church,  at  any  thing  that  will 
float  them  to  the  old  shore  where  they  are  sure  a 
Heavenly  Father  is  waiting  to  soothe  them.  When 
sorrow  thunders  at  the  clifls  and  the  tide  of  pathos 
steals  in  to  cover  all  the  meadows,  they  climb  into  the 
highlands  of  an  Infinite  bosom  ;  they  are  sure  it  will 
not  reach  them  there:  it  laps  their  feet — it  will  not 
reach  their  waist :  it  is  waist-deep  —  but   it  will   not 


I5S  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

overflow  the  lips.  It  does  —  it  fights  at  the  threshold 
of  the  lips  with  psalms  of  confidence,  and  strangles  the 
last  entreaty.  What  can  a  church  do,  or  a  creed  that 
is  stuffed  with  the  tenderest  words  in  the  language? 
If  there  are  moments  when  the  Father  is  only  inevi- 
tableness,  what  can  religion  do  for  us  in  this  direction? 
We  attempt  to  free  ourselves  from  this  embarrass- 
ment by  showing  how  the  facts  themselves  are  all 
religious.  Knit  at  the  four  corners,  the  order  of  God 
descends,  full  of  all  manner  of  grand  and  creeping 
things,  and  we  wake  up  to  declare  that  nothing  is 
common  or  unclean.  We  perceive  how  many  evils 
are  only  states  of  imperfect  development  that  make  the 
perfect  plan  more  clear  :  they  are  gospels  that  proclaim 
the  purpose.  And  all  the  sciences  come  to  us  loaded 
with  specimens  of  every  sort  that  fit  into  a  plan  ;  the 
gaps  fill  up  so  fast  and  the  symmetry  grows  so  evident 
that  we  do  not  mind  the  other  gaps :  the  soul  rises  into 
a  feeling  of  confidence,  stretches  forth  its  exploring 
hand  into  the  darkness  and  feels  a  warm  hand  every- 
where. The  more  it  knows  the  more  it  confides. 
This  is  the  very  essence  of  Religion.  That  word  must 
not  be  used  to  represent  nothing  but  our  longing  to 
be  pitied  and  comforted.  It  expresses  the  consolation 
that  confidence  imparts.  Is  there  any  other  kind? 
You  feel  as  a  child  does  whose  parents  have  called  in 
the  old  physician,  whose  lost  cases  have  never  shaken 
the  confidence  that  people  pay  to  a  perfect  intention 
and  to  the  highest  reach  of  skill.  The  suffering  child 
begins  to  rally  in  the  happiness  of  that  abject  confi- 
dence born  of  the  joarents'  deliberate  experience.  So 
the  progress  of  knowledge   recruits    Religion.     And 


A    DIVINE    PERSON.  I59 

from   this  to  a  faith  in  an  infinite  source  of  friendship 
there  Is  but  a  step. 

The  step  Into  that  faith  is  made  by  human  nature 
when  It  perceives  that  God  befriends  It  through  Its 
friends,  of  Its  own  flesh  and  blood.  If  all  other 
proofs  should  fall  to  restore  Personality  to  the  Infinite 
Intelligence,  this  private  test  of  friendship  does  it :  for 
we  say,  If  there  Is  something  above  and  distinct  from 
myself  that  comes  blessing  me  in  the  shape  of  my 
friendship,  It  must  be  an  Infinite  Friendliness.  No 
invariable  natural  processes  are  capable  of  that :  they 
are  impersonal,  they  have  neither  praise  nor  blame, 
sympathy  nor  aversion  ;  the  relation  between  a  man 
and  the  order  of  nature  is  the  same  as  that  between 
heat  and  cookery,  an  engine  and  the  power  that  drives 
it.  It  would  be  just  as  impossible  for  caloric  to  indulge 
fraternal  warmth  as  for  the  Inevitable  and  consistent 
force  of  the  world  to  have  a  partiality  for  its  victims. 
Where,  then,  do  you  get  your  human  friend  from  : 
must  he  not  be  derived  from  some  primitive  element 
of  friendliness,  or  is  this  most  precious  of  all  motives 
self-generated?  Is  it  merely  the  fondling  among  a 
herd  of  brains  that  prowl  and  browse  In  the  jungles 
of  life,  or  has  atomic  afiinity  mustered  to  our  blood 
to  light  these  fire-signals  upon  mutual  cheeks,  and  are 
these  grasplngs  of  hands  the  ultimate  effect  of  cohe- 
sion, this  attractiveness  nothing  but  a  surplus  of  the 
magnet's  spell?  We  are  bold  enough  to  suspect  a 
divine  breath  in  the  sweet  clover  and  new  hay  ;  we 
delight  to  pretend  that  the  trees  stand  straight  in  a 
life  beneath,  and  the  wild  animals  fill  the  forests  with 
suggested   instincts   and  not  their  own.     Let  us  be  as 


l6o  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

generous  to  our  best  emotions.  Whenever  the  notion 
of  fatalism  breaks  out  of  the  routine  of  nature,  and 
gets  into  the  mind  to  set  up  there  the  image  of  an 
indifferent  and  pantheistic  God,  the  next  friend  who 
does  us  a  favor  out  of  pure  love,  who  opens  a  vein 
and  bids  us  hold  a  heart  that  he  may  drain  away  into 
it,  fills  the  heavens  and  earth  with  himself,  and  invents 
friendship  for  God. 

The  moral  actions  that  are  inspired  by  love  are  the 
correctives  of  the  materialism  which  is  undoubtedly 
nourished  by  our  knowledge  of  so  many  laws  and 
facts.  When  we  put  God  into  every  thing,  his  person- 
ality becomes  entangled  :  or  when  we  put  every  thing 
into  God,  it  is  a  pure  mental  gesture  that  embarrasses 
his  distinctness  from  the  effects  that  he  produces. 
Things  are  infinite,  and  yet  we  must  contrive  some 
way  of  having  God  infinitely  different  from  his  things. 
We  might  swathe  him  with  his  universe  till  he  became 
a  mummy.  We  might  crush  out  his  personality  with 
the  weight  of  his  ornaments.  Our  conscience  has 
freedom  enough  of  its  own  to  be  convinced  that  God 
must  be  free  also  :  and  that  idea  includes  his  personal 
distinctness  from  every  thing  that  he  felt  free  to  make. 
Our  being  is  in  Him:  his  being  is  in  us  —  yet  he  is 
One  and  we  are  others.  It  seems  to  me  that  Love  is  a 
good  solver  of  this  problem,  if  we  fail  to  find  law  for 
it-  Love  sometimes  threatens  to  make  us  more  hope- 
lessly pantheistic  than  ever,  as  we  feel  that  love  makes 
us  one  with  each  other  and  one  with  God.  All  things 
seem  swallowed  up  in  unity  :  landmarks  are  obliter- 
ated ;  all  the  fences  are  taken  down,  and  rights  of 
property  cannot  be   distinguished.     At  that  very  mo- 


A   DIVINE    PERSON.  l6l 

ment  God's  Person  becomes  more  distinct  than  ever : 
he  is  the  source  from  which  tliis  unity  flows  and  to 
which  it  loves  to  return. 

Wliose  idea  was  it  that  we  should  have  friends  and 
lovers,  believers  in  ourselves,  protectors  of  the  heart 
against  the  ills  of  cause  and  effect,  our  champions  for 
better  and  worse,  who  stand  up  for  us  when  God's 
consistency  appears  to  be  trying  to  put  us  down,  and  so 
inspire  us  with  the  sense  of  a  higher  consistency  that 
we  cannot  detect  anywhere  in  nature,  whose  purpose 
is  to  use  us  up  in  a  perfectly  legal  but  sometimes  very 
objectionable  fashion  ?  Where  does  the  charity  come 
from  that  believeth,  hopeth,  and  endureth  all  things? 
"  Do  you  say  that  God  has  abandoned  my  husband  to 
his  habits?"  said  a  wife  to  a  professional  comforter, — 
"  then  it  is  high  time  that  I  should  stand  up  for  him 
and  see  him  through.  I  will  be  God  for  him,  if  God 
is  of  your  mind."  What  a  taste  of  a  divine  Person 
who  is  distinct  from  the  laws  of  habit !  One  might 
say  that  God  already  had  advantages  enough  in  the 
operations  of  his  natural  laws  :  how  various  and  su- 
preme they  are,  and  how  the  good  counterbalances 
the  evil !  —  but  in  the  love  of  such  a  lover  as  that,  God 
first  becomes  richer  than  his  universe,  and  steps  out 
of  its  complications  into  the  reserve  of  Person.  In 
that  reserve  there  is  our  supplement  of  love. 

Will  you  not  have  a  God  at  least  as  big  as  a  man  or 
woman  who  loves  you?  Not  as  fine  as  your  own 
finest  conception  of  pity,  sympathy,  championship, 
relationship?  The  pantheist  has  inverted  the  telescope 
with  which  he  scours  the  heavens,  and  God  comes  out 
at  the  little  end  :  he  becomes  a  vanishing  God,  a  pigmy 


102  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

in  the  diminishing  perspective.  Here  is  a  brave,  am- 
ple, determined,  whole-souled  friend  standing  at  your 
elbow  on  his  two  substantial  feet,  a  man  or  a  woman 
who  is  all  aflame  for  you  with  human  nature,  expressly 
commissioned  to  atone  for  every  disaster,  and  to  make 
you  forget  both  man  and  Providence  when  they  are 
churlish.  And  here,  through  the  telescope,  is  a  dot 
of  a  source  of  friendship,  with  no  personal  friendliness 
in  it ! 

Perhaps  we  object  that  we  can  have  an  actual  expe- 
rience of  our  friend,  but  we  have  no  similar  experience 
of  the  proximity  of  any  divine  source  of  friendship, 
and  cannot  pretend  to  have,  however  much  we  try  to 
lift  ourselves  into  the  mystical  rapture  of  such  a  union. 
That  is  because  we  have  been  taught  unnatural  ways 
of  approaching  God,  by  prayers  and  phrases:  a  form 
of  worship,  we  are  told,  is  the  only  ladder  that  will 
take  us  up  through  the  scuttle  Into  the  illimitable  air. 
But  we  find  God  by  staying  in  the  house  that  all  our 
natural  gifts  have  built  around  us.  He  comes  and 
dwells  with  us  in  them.  And  if  we  would  turn  to 
speak  to  him  it  must  be  through  the  channels  of  his 
presence.  When  all  our  gifts  conspire  with  God  we 
share  an  ecstasy  of  creativeness,  compared  with  which 
the  raptures  of  the  lean  and  yellow  mystics  are  the 
maunderlngs  of  typhus-fever.  Try  God  by  way  of 
your  whole  nature,  and  see  if  this  age  of  intelligence 
be  not  still  capable  of  detecting  something  divine. 
Do  at  least  as  much  as  you  do  towards  3^our  friend : 
try  a  little  mutuality.  For  no  man  can  have  a 
friend  or  lover  gratis :  he  continues  for  us  on  the 
strength  of  our  own  seeking,  our  own    striving,  our 


A    DIVINE    PERSON.  1 63 

faithfulness  and  sense  of  needing  him.  When  we 
pay  out  something  towards  the  invisible  Friendship, 
through  the  fragrance  of  blossoming  gifts,  and  not  with 
the  counterfeits  of  liturgies  and  violent  assertions  of 
homage,  sneaking  and  importunate  teasing  for  special 
providences,  we  shall  find  that  the  principle  of  mutu- 
ality is  most  perfect,  most  captivating  and  soul-suffic- 
ing in  the  direction  of  the  primitive  source  of  all  our 
human  mutualities.  Friendship  is  spontaneous,  mag- 
netic, subject  to  the  laws  of  affinity,  no  doubt :  but  in 
all  affinities  there  are  two  parties.  Is  God  the  only 
party  in  the  universe  who  is  left  out  of  this  chance  for 
an  affinity?  We  shall  have  an  answer  to  that  ques- 
tion when  we  have  recovered  from  our  theological 
dyspepsia,  and  cease  to  make  our  bad  breath  an 
offence  in  his  nostrils.  Let  the  whole  nature  turn 
consciously  towards  Him,  so  that  the  sincerity  of  all 
thoughts,  passions,  and  emotions  shall  remind  his 
infinite  friendship  of  itself,  and  earth  be  heaven's 
comrade. 

Does  any  suggestion  come  out  of  the  infinite  like 
this?  "You  have  got  to  like  me  whether  you  wish 
to  or  not,  for  in  me  you  live  and  move  and  have 
your  being.  I  am.  If  the  personal  pronoun  may  be 
used,  your  great,  Immanent,  pantheistic.  No-otherness. 
Come  —  or  if  coming  be  too  strong  a  word  in  a  case 
where  there  is  no  Person  to  come  to,  stay,  as  we  are, 
together.  I  am  like  the  juggler's  bottle  :  draw  what 
tap  you  please.  Call  for  pity,  love,  comfort.  Indigna- 
tion :  it  Is  all  the  same  to  my  indefinite  sameness.  In- 
deed, you  7nust  take  something." 

The  cure  for  this  Is  In  the  broad  and  positive  living 


164  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

that  is  carried  on  by  human  nature.  The  old  prescrip- 
tion was  to  seek  God  by  isolated  piety  ;  men  were 
told  to  lift  their  souls  into  personal  communion  by 
some  single  gift  of  prayer,  of  meditation,  of  remote 
abstraction.  You  might  as  well  prescribe  to  a  man 
who  is  standing  in  a  basket  to  lift  himself  by  taking 
hold  of  the  handles.  If  the  whole  soul  does  not  go 
forth  to  its  Creator,  all  the  single  gifts  will  lag  behind, 
and  the  fancy  will  be  deceived  by  much  straining  and 
mimicry  of  aspiration.  When  a  man  healthily  fulfils 
the  uses  to  which  God  would  put  him  he  finds  the 
object  of  his  worship,  for  God  is  coextensive  with  his 
nature.  The  dancing  Dervish  spins  around  himself 
to  the  point  of  vertigo,  then  sinks  exhausted  in  a  kind 
of  swoon  which  passes  for  assimilation  with  the 
Deity.  He  comes  out  of  it  as  light-headed  as  he  went 
in  ;  and  this  is  the  usual  result  of  isolated  gestures 
which  pretend  to  unite  the  finite  with  the  infinite. 
Has  not  God  already  suggested  the  terms  on  which 
he  will  yield  himself?  They  are  the  nature  in  men 
and  women  perfectly  developed  and  harmonized  by 
health.  If  the  whole  of  a  man  expresses  God,  then 
nothing  short  of  the  whole  can  find  Him. 

Wherever  a  few  neighbors  live  together  within  the 
sound  of  each  other's  troubles,  they  do  not  need  to 
overhear  each  other  when  invoking  the  infinite  com- 
passion. The  invocation  is  all  wasted  breath,  for  the 
compassion  is  already  with  them  in  the  opportunities 
of  human  friendship.  And  there  is  no  man  so  de- 
spised, whether  justly  or  not,  who  is  without  a  friend 
who  gives  him  a  lift,  picks  him  from  the  gutter,  helps 
him  to  regain  his   feet  from  some  staggering   disap- 


A    DIVINE    PERSON.  1 65 

pointment.  Some  counsel  rallies  to  some  exigency, 
some  partisan  to  some  defence.  All  the  peopled 
places  of  the  earth  are  provided  with  this  friendly 
cooperation,  which  is  the  most  effective  kind  of  divine 
intei^vention,  and  an  answer  that  never  failed  to  the 
outbursts  of  human  anguish.  God  hears  by  all  the 
ears  he  has  provided.  And  if  a  man's  complaint,  in 
desert  places,  upon  islands  in  desolate  seas,  or  on  the 
famine-stricken  raft,  does  not  reach  an  ear  it  does  not 
reach  the  divine  interference.  Where  there  is  no 
friend  the  agony  exhales  in  prayers :  the  sea  swallows 
it,  the  whirling  sand-columns  of  the  desert  overtake 
it,  and  leave  bleaching  bones  to  mark  the  absence  of 
God's  opportunity.  All  shipwrecks  and  disasters  that 
prove  fatal,  notwithstanding  agonized  entreaties  flung 
heavenward,  because  no  human  help  is  near,  only 
prove  the  general  intent  of  heaven  to  manifest  its  pity 
by  some  friend.  A  man's  distress  converts  an  indiffer- 
ent neighbor  to  a  brother.  Many  a  wilful  soul  that 
has  gone  far  astray,  and  earned  the  detestation  of 
society,  becomes  at  length  an  embodied  prayer,  though 
only  curses  may  pass  the  lips ;  and  some  innocent 
heart  acknowledges  the  eloquent  appeal,  and,  drawing 
near  to  lift  up  the  battered  and  distorted  character, 
hears  its  first  religious  confession,  as  it  is  surprised 
into  saying,  "  Oh,  then  I  see  God  has  still  some  pity 
for  me  ! "  What  promise  of  a  Comforter  is  equal  to 
the  performance  of  human  compassion ! 


VII. 

AN    AMERICAN   ATONEMENT. 

IF  we  reject  the  ordinary  inferences  which  theology 
draws  from  the  doctrine  of  a  divine  Person,  all  of 
which  can  be  defined  as  assumptions  that  His  mode 
of  operation  does  not  invariably  follow  the  lines  of  His 
own  laws,  let  us  see  if  the  country  can  make  any  use 
of  the  theory  that  reconciliation  of  man  with  God  is 
the  central  act  of  Religion.  It  supposes  that  man  has 
fallen  away  from  a  vital  connection  with  the  source 
of  spiritual  health,  and  that  he  becomes  religious  by 
reestablishing  the  relation,  for  damaging  which  he 
alone  is  responsible.  To  give  such  a  theory  any  repu- 
tation, it  is  necessary  to  impute  feelings  to  God  that 
are  purely  human,  and  belong  to  the  kitchen  furniture 
of  tlie  individual,  —  that  he  is  exorable,  or  willing  to 
modify  his  intentions  at  human  entreaty ;  that  he  is 
placable,  also  that  he  is  implacable  ;  that  he  with- 
draws from  people  who  offend  or  thwart  him,  and 
returns  when  the  offender  relents  and  abandons  his 
posture  ;  behaving  generally  like  a  human  father  of  not 
the  most  magnanimous  and  elevated  type. 

This  gross   anthropomorphism  has  been  the  result 
of  the  mind's  taking  refuge  in  texts,  whenever  it  is  per- 


AN   AMERICAN    ATONEMENT.  1 67 

plexed  at  the  phenomena  of  physical  and  moral  evil, 
instead  of  in  the  information  that  science  furnishes  of 
an  immutable  and  consistent  government  of  the  w^orld. 
In  this  respect,  the  monotheism  of  the  Old  Testament  is 
far  from  being  homogeneous.  Sometimes  the  Lord  has 
the  passions  and  caprices  of  a  gigantic  man  :  he  repents 
having  made  the  other  men  ;  he  crushes  enemies,  and 
exacts  the  pound  of  flesh  ;  he  is  jealous  ;  he  counts  the 
incense,  and  marks  if  its  perfume  be  rare ;  he  is  open 
to  various  inducements  to  condone  offences.  Some- 
times the  later  page  soars  above  this  fetichistic  smoke 
of  sacrificial  fat,  into  the  serene  space  where  Cleanthes 
sung  his  hymn  to  the  Supreme.  But  the  Scriptures 
never  forget  to  assume  that  man  must  be  reconciled  to 
God,  while  God  is  reconciled  to  man  by  some  vicari- 
ous project  that  preserves  the  self-respect  of  justice. 

But  phrases  which  are  suggested  by  ancient  texts 
only  perpetuate  ancient  misunderstandings.  They  are 
no  better  than  the  abstract  terms  of  philosophers  who 
try  to  account  for  things  before  science  has  equipped 
their  minds.  A  new  country  must  let  these  drain 
away,  together  with  oligarchic  dogmas,  through  the 
great  cloaca  of  the  past. 

We  must  find  a  practical  sense  in  which  Religion  is 
the  act  or  state  of  man's  reconciliation  with  God,  be- 
cause we  are  conscious  that  a  variance  is  set  on  foot  in 
the  world  itself,  which  is  full  of  things  that  cry  aloud 
to  be  reconciled.  Left  to  themselves,  they  whimper 
not  one  word  of  justification.  They  appear  so  con- 
tradictory to  human  ideas  of  help  and  providence,  that 
they  would  be  considered  impossible,  if  experience  did 
not  personally  report  them  to  us.     What  is  their  ori- 


1 68  •  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

gin,  we  ask  in  some  dismay,  and  how  can  a  perfect 
intelligence  sustain  them?  When,  for  instance,  we 
perceive  the  foct  of  the  inequality  of  human  conditions, 
and  how  irreconcilable  it  is  wi-th  our  fraternal  ascrip- 
tion of  impartiality  to  God,  we  say,  Is  the  fault  in  our 
ascription  ? 

In  Mr.  Thackeray's  novel  of  "  The  Newcomes," 
there  is  a  scene  where  the  noble  but  unfortunate  hero 
of  his  book  sits  in  the  pauper's  gallery  during  divine 
service,  having  come  at  last  to  that  complexion,  not- 
withstanding a  disinterested  life  ;  and  over  his  cower- 
ing, weather-beaten  head  rolls  the  grand  assertion  of 
the  liturgy,  "  I  have  been  young,  and  now  am  old,"  yet 
have  I  not  seen  the  righteous  forsaken,  nor  his  seed 
begging  bread."  The  anthem  reverberates  against  its 
own  refutation  in  the  gallery,  and  can  hardly  retain 
countenance  in  men's  minds  for  its  generous  assump- 
tion that  things  ought  to  be,  at  least,  as  it  declares 
they  are. 

Vulgar  opulence  fills  the  street  from  wall  to  wall  of 
the  houses,  and  begrudges  all  but  the  gutter  to  every- 
body whose  sleeve  is  a  little  worn  at  the  elbows. 
Long  careers  of  vice,  that  prosper  even  in  their  epi- 
taphs, make  cemeteries  seem  ridiculous,  and  death  any 
thing  but  a  leveller.  Some  one  ventures  to  allude  to  a 
compensating  hereafter,  hinting  that  Dives  will  there 
change  places  with  Lazarus,  to  find  Cerberus  too  dis- 
dainful to  lick  his  sores,  and  Lazarus  not  eager  to  over- 
heat himself  with  running  to  fetch  him  water.  We 
should  be  surer  of  this  future  balancing  of  the  books, 
if  we  could  reason  from  traces  of  analogy  in  a  number 
of  cases  of  such  exemplary  compensation  in  the  present 


AN    AMERICAN    ATONEMENT.  1 69 

life  ;  but  if  we  could,  our  higher  motives  would  refuse 
to  accept  a  justification  that  merely  turned  upon  shift- 
ing the  saddle  from  the  beast  to  the  rider.  Misery 
cannot  long  exult  in  opportunities  to  make  other  peo- 
ple miserable.  The  theologians,  who  derive  their 
whole  scheme  of  heaven  from  the  petty  spite  that 
sometimes  crows  and  capers  here,  derive  it  from  a 
feeling  that  is  more  irreconcilable  with  God  than  all 
the  misery  and  all  the  vice  ;  and  it  is  one  of  which 
mankind  is  heartily  ashamed,  though  we  have  heard 
of  one  venerable  dame  of  orthodoxy  who  said,  "  Some 
folks  think  that  a  good  many  people  will  be  saved,  but 
we  hope  for  better  things."  If  all  hunchbacks  could 
plant  their  humps  between  the  shoulders  of  all  their 
deriders,  the  world  would  have  one  moment  of  a  re- 
sounding Ha-ha  !  to  see  accounts  so  happily  squared. 
But  the  next  moment  would  express  the  pity  of  a  God, 
and  we  should  hear  every  man  anxiously  reclaiming 
his  hump,  as  an  evil  inferior  to  the  mortification  of 
seeing  it  upon  another.  Flourishing  vulgarity  is  more 
unconscious  than  wicked  ;  a  destitute  refinement  is  a 
great  deal  more  capable  of  bearing  malice. 

But  what  is  vice  itself  but  another  mark  of  inequal- 
ity of  human  conditions?  One  man  is  born  of  un- 
healthy parents,  littered  in  some  inclement  corner,  and 
left  to  forage  in  the  streets.  His  hunger  is  appeased 
by  a  kind  of  diet  that  propagates  the  diseases  06  his 
blood.  When  he  is  exasperated  into  committing  of- 
fences against  society,  we  lock  him  up  ;  but  this  is  not 
a  religious  act  that  reconciles  him  with  the  moral 
order.  It  only  protects  the  neighborhood  while  he 
nurses  his  destructive  skill,  and  waits  to  be  restored  to 


I^O  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

the  opportunities  of  using  it.  There  are  born  burglars 
who  cherish  a  professional  pride,  and  long  to  earn  the 
approbation  of  distinguished  cracksmen  ;  they  discuss 
in  prison  their  arts,  as  Cicero  in  his  Tusculan  villa 
broached  questions  of  divination  with  his  stoic  friends. 
The  congenital  peculiarity  becomes  a  fate  to  arrange 
the  whole  checkered  career  of  detection  and  impunity. 
Who  is  responsible  for  this.^ 

If  a  man  is  profligate  enough  to  take  advantage  of 
the  lisrhtheadedness  which  sometimes  afflicts  a  starv- 
ing  and  forsaken  woman,  both  his  profligacy  and  her 
misfortune  need  to  be  reconciled  with  the  purity  of 
God.  The  Social  Evil  is  a  double-headed  clamor 
against  heaven.  And  we  put  another  tongue  into  its 
accusation,  when  we  make  an  outcast  of  the  woman, 
and  a  tolerated  nuisance  of  the  man. 

Not  vice  alone,  but  ignorance  that  is  defenceless, 
upbraids  the  divine  impartialit}^  Early  in  the  six- 
teenth century  the  continent  of  Africa  was  found  to  be 
a  prolific  hot-bed  of  beings  who  wore  the  full  shape 
of  manhood  without  its  full  intelligence  ;  they  instantly 
piqued  the  necessities  of  commerce  and  labor,  which 
have  ever  since  spun  this  helplessness  into  ties  for 
holding  kingdoms  together.  The  slaver  dropped  his 
anchor  oft'  the  fringe  of  that  ignorance,  and  took  it  on 
board  as  freight :  the  black  heart  hunted  the  black 
skii>,  and  infected  a  whole  continent  with  delayed  jus- 
tice. No  other  tribes  of  men  could  have  remained 
abject  long  enough  to  force  such  retributions  from 
heaven.  Did  God  construct  this  2:>eculiar  type  of  igno- 
rance in  order  to  extort  at  last  peculiar  vengeance  ;  to 
tempt  sagacious   cupidity,  so   that   three  centuries  of 


AN   AMERICAN   ATONEMENT.  171 

oppression  might  be  signalized  by  the  miseries  of  the 
weak  and  the  degradations  of  the  strong?  When  this 
asks  to  be  reconciled  with  our  feeling  of  the  divine 
paternity,  religion  is  frustrated  by  its  own  texts. 
'-'•  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children"  sounds  ironi- 
cally, and  "God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  men" 
becomes  degraded  into  a  fact  of  j)hysiology.  "  Come 
unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy-laden,"  on  the 
lips  of  priests  in  St.  Domingo,  and  of  bishops  in  Vir- 
ginia, has  had  a  queer  touch  of  the  auction-block  in  it, 
as  of  a  highest  bidder  collecting  together  the  women 
and  children  who  have  been  knocked  down  to  him. 
Religion  must  jDcrceive  that  its  finest  texts  have  only 
furnished  sedatives  to  mankind,  which  has  come  out 
of  each  narcotic  drovv^se  to  find  its  trouble  aggravated. 

Not  to  multiply  the  instances  which  make  history 
appear  to  be  only  a  late  afterthought  and  rectification 
of  divine  justice,  in  its  struggle  to  repair  deficiencies 
in  the  practical  effect  of  nature  and  circumstance,  it 
is  safe  to  say  that  the  whole  structure  of  society  is  an 
indictment  which  religion  must  quash,  or  be  put  into 
the  bar  to  be  judged  by  a  moral  sense  that  is  supe- 
rior to  the  evils  which  it  has  accused. 

Religion  has  undertaken  to  reply  by  methods  that 
have  only  given  emphasis  to  ignorance.  Its  explana- 
tions have  been  additional  evils.  Upon  a  man  whose 
blood  is  poisoned  it  has  only  conferred  the  sad  consist- 
ency of  showing  that  he  could  not  help  his  vice,  or 
could  not  help  incurring  it.  For  if  men  have  spoiled 
themselves  by  their  own  fault,  theology  cannot  make 
it  clear  that  they  could  have  helped  it,  because  a  part 
of  tlie  fault  may  be  justly  referred  to  the  constitution 


173  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

which  gave  men  a  fatal  tendency  towards  spoiling 
themselves.  It  is  useless  to  struggle,  by  forms  of 
speech  and  elaborate  systems  of  doctrine,  against  that 
supposed  error  in  the  divine  .plan,  by  which  men, 
through  ignorance  and  passion,  have  made  free  to 
degrade  themselves,  and  by  doing  this  to  force  God  to 
resort  to  schemes  of  reconstruction  and  atonement. 

What  reply  can  theology  make  to  the  natural  pro- 
test of  mankind  against  the  evils  which  have  infested 
it  since  men  drew  breath?  No  legends  of  the  fall  of 
man  by  an  act  of  his  free  will  can  satisfy  man's  in- 
stinct that  reconciliation  with  God  means  something 
different  from  undoing  God's  own  work  and  substitut- 
ing: for  it  a  scheme  of  salvation.  God  undertakes  a 
piece  of  work  that  does  not  need  undoing.  He  does 
not  spin  a  web  by  day,  which,  like  Penelope,  he  must 
unravel  by  night,  to  postpone  the  loss  of  his  sovereignty. 
If  we  try  to  think  well  of  God  by  thinking  ill  of  the 
men  he  has  made,  we  are  irreligious.  What  is  there 
in  the  whole  expanse  of  the  universe  that  can  com- 
pare with  the  different  tribes  and  people  he  has  made, 
who,  naturally  enough,  prefer  light  to  darkness,  tend 
to  rejoice  in  the  warmth  of  the  sun  and  the  inbreath- 
ing of  oxygen  that  repairs  their  blood  as  fast  as  it 
deteriorates?  This  is  a  symbol  of  the  atmosphere 
their  souls  inhale.  If  it  is  still  worth  while  to  keep 
the  word  Religion  in  the  human  family,  to  represent 
a  tendency  that  was  strong  enough  to  ennoble  the  past 
in  spite  of  its  unnatural  doctrines,  and  is  the  hope  of 
a  wiser  future,  we  must  show  that  there  is  a  better 
way  of  binding  men  to  God  than  by  assuming  that 
they  are  not  fit  for  it  by  nature.     We  tie  them  neck 


AN    AMERICAN    ATONEMENT.  1^3 

and  heels  with  the  strands  of  that  doctrinal  fiction,  and 
then  fasten  them  into  a  pew  to  listen  to  a  service  that 
is  only  an  apology  for  God's  defects. 

The  theology  that  posits  enmity  between  man  and 
God,  no  matter  by  whose  fault,  must  assnme  that  God 
cannot  be  content  until  his^  sovereignty  is  acknowl- 
edged. He  has  been  offended,  he  demands  reparation  ; 
his  sense  of  justice  cannot  tolerate  the  wrongs  he  has 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  men.  But  as  mankind  itself 
is  not  large  enough  to  satisfy  the  claim  of  an  infinite 
justice,  infinity  itself  must  be  the  liquidation  of  its 
own  debt.  In  other  words,  reduced  to  plain  absurdity, 
God  himself  atones  for  the  injuries  which  he  has 
received.  He  does  not  remit  or  condone  them,  still 
less  pass  them  over,  but  he  is  entangled  in  the  awk- 
wardness of  paying  a  just  bill  which  he  knew^  could 
not  be  paid  when  he  brought  it  in :  in  fact,  only 
brought  it  in  for  the  superfluous  object  of  paying  it 
himself.  William  Blake  said  of  the  Atonement:  "  It 
is  a  horrible  doctrine  :  if  another  man  pay  your  debt, 
I  do  not  forgive  it." 

Theology  of  the  atoning  kind  is  derived  from  a  mis- 
interpretation of  the  sacrificial  history  of  the  race. 
As  a  victim  has  always  bled  to  expiate  or  to  propitiate, 
the  theologian  concludes  that  a  yearning  forecast  of 
mankind  quenches  its  thirst  at  length  in  the  blood 
of  a  Redeemer,  to  whose  veins  the  whole  logic  of  crea- 
tion has  been  gathering,  from  its  barest  and  most 
distant  members,  till  a  divine  heart  lends  it  a  pulse 
of  explanation  and  atonement.  Then  every  oftering 
and  victim  that  has  testified  to  a  human  desire  for 
reconciliation  becomes  justified,  but  at  the  same  time 


174  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

superseded,  by  the  Victor- Victim,  and  the  course  of 
sacrifice  is  complete.  In  -this  way,  a  history,  that  is 
really  a  succession  of  human  escapes  from  the  fetich- 
istic  idea  that  substitutes  of  all  sorts  can  pay  man's 
debts  and  keep  the  invisible  appeased,  is  interpreted 
to  be  a  succession  of  human  anticipations  of  a  genu- 
ine sacrifice  that  grow  more  and  more  emphatic,  till 
the  time  is  ripe  and  the  victim  full  grown.  Just  when 
the  "  Lamb  of  God "  became  a  harmless  figure  of 
speech,  in  texts  whose  mediatorial  rhetoric  had  no 
idea  of  spilling  blood,  it  was  exaggerated  into  an 
infinite  fact  and  slaughtered,  so  fiir  as  phrases  and 
councils  could  do  it,  for  a  mankind  that  had  outgrown 
the  need  of  it.  And  nothing  is  left  of  the  ancient  sac- 
rificial error  but  the  vague  subjective  sentiment  which 
is  created  by  these  phrases.  Man  is  discovering  his 
own  structural,  personal,  and  immediate  connection 
with  the  infinite,  and  learns  fast  that  the  laws  of  his 
own  nature  must  take  away  his  sins.  If  they  do  not, 
then  nothing  else,  though  slain  from  the  foundations 
of  the  world,  can  accomplish  it. 

The  notion  that  a  primitive  custom  must  indicate  a 
natural  necessity,  because  it  has  been  gradually  devel- 
oped and  refined,  might  as  well  legitimate  other  obso- 
lete manners  of  the  human  race.  All  old  customs  are 
not  the  tide-guagcs  of  real  latent  tendencies  that  creep 
towards  their  height;  many  of  them  are  rather  the 
obstructions  of  an  early  coast-line,  which  the  tide 
would  fain  desert  and  overflow,  as  it  extricates  itself 
and  mounts  to  clearness.  Thus  the  tendency  to  ac- 
count for  the  world,  to  rationalize  its  phenomena,  and 
to  reach  a  deduction  of  the  relation  between  the  creat- 


AN   AMERICAN   ATONEMENT.  1 75 

ure  and  creator,  carried  barbarism  on  its  bosom  for 
ages,  and  has  not  even  now  thrown  off  the  perilous 
stuff.  We  value  the  customs  as  marks  of  a  mental 
struggle,  not  as  signs  of  intimate  spiritual  correlation. 
As  soon  might  we  advocate  some  gymnastic  method 
of  stealing  our  wives,  by  making  matrimonial  raids 
on  the  next  town  and  taking  them  from  unwary  rela- 
tives, because  savages  procured  women  by  draggini^ 
them  off  by  the  hair,  amid  the  resistance  of  an  out- 
raged clan.  It  might  be  confirming  to  discover  highly 
evangelical  traces  of  this  primitive  revelation  among 
people  who  still  provoke  a  pitched  battle  to  get  women 
away  from  their  tribe  or  family.  We  might  pursue  the 
gradual  amelioration  of  this  practice,  through  scenes 
of  mock  combat,  running-matches,  bloodless  surprises, 
feigned  reluctance  of  the  women,  symbolic  substitutes, 
till  nothing  is  left  of  the  aboriginal  skirmish  but  an 
old  shoe  to  be  tossed  after  the  departing  bride.  "  That, 
indeed,  is  going  too  far,"  orthodoxy  might  say  :  "  that 
is  the  way  liberalism  has  treated  the  Atonement  by 
running  the  serviceable  truth  down  at  the  heel,  and 
then  expending  with  immense  demonstration  of  genu- 
ine sacrifice  what  is  not  worth  being  kept.  But  see, 
in  this  matter  of  marriage,  how  development  Itself 
justifies  some  recourse  to  violence.  We  have  reached 
an  Altar-form  of  sacrifice,  let  us  have  the  halter  style 
of  wooing.  By  returning  to  the  divine  theory  of  rav- 
ishment, let  us  suppress  altogether  this  increasing 
infidelity  of  Christless  people,  who  would  win  the 
love  of  a  whole  family  in  order  to  win  their  too  will- 
ing wives." 

The  old  tendency  to  forcible  marriage   Involves  a 


176  AMERICAN    RELIGIOxW 

necessity  of  human  nature  as  much  as  the  old  dogmatic 
forms  of  sacrifice. 

In  the  famous  letter  which  Pliny  wrote  to  Trajan, 
that  describes  his  dealings  with  the  Christians  in  By- 
thynia,  he  mentions  that  the  superstition  is  widely 
spread,  but  that  he  can  report  some  improvement, 
and  says,  '•  Victims  are  again  on  sale,  purchasers  hav- 
ing been  very  difficult  to  find."  No  doubt  the  early 
Christians  found  it  more  economical,  as  well  as  Scrip- 
tural, to  substitute  Christ  for  the  sacrifices  of  the 
temple-services.  For  though  the  idea  of  an  Atone- 
ment did  not  assume  a  dogmatic  form  till  long  after, 
it  was  gathered  from  the  apostolic  epistles,  and  taken 
for  granted  by  the  popular  Christian  feeling.  So  the 
old  pagan  notion  survived  in  this  form,  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  modern  Europe.  Purchasers  have  never 
been  difficult  to  find  ;  all  people  who  relish  the  idea 
of  offering  up  somebody,  other  than  themselves,  to 
satisfy  the  infinite  justice,  will  subscribe  to  the  ecclesi 
astical  system  that  preserves  this  reminiscence  of 
heathendom. 

We  must  not,  however,  forget  to  notice  that  modern 
atoning  schemes  resort  to  justifying  themselves  to 
human  nature,  by  appearing  to  reintroduce  the  divine 
Love  into  a  system  impaired  b}-  sin,  like  air  into  an 
ill-ventilated  house.  But  the  Love  already  pervades 
all  professions,  arts,  and  labors,  and  is  the  ideal 
against  which  the  imperfections  declare  themselve^i 
and  ajDpcal  for  remedy.  The  densest  body  has  pores 
which  invite  its  ingress.  If  a  man  calls  at  my  dooi 
with  a  patent  portable  case  of  atmosphere,  I  have 
only  to   open   the   window  to   bid  him    pack,    to    dis- 


AN    AMERICAN    ATONEMENT.  1 77 

cover  and  inhale  the  blessing  he  pretended  to 
bring. 

To  be  a  finite  being  is  no  crime,  and  to  be  the 
Infinite  is  not  to  be  a  creditor.  As  man  was  not  con- 
sulted, he  does  not  find  himself  a  party  in  a  bargain, 
but  a  child  in  the  household  of  Love.  Reconciliation, 
therefore,  is  not  the  consequence  of  paying  a  debt,  or 
procuring  atonement  for  an  injury,  but  an  organic 
process  of  the  human  life. 

Man  begins  to  be  reconciled  w^ith  God  when  he 
learns  the  laws  of  things  and  accommodates  himself 
to  them.     Take  a  few  simple  cases  for  illustration. 

A  person  finds  it  utterly  irreconcilable  with  his  idea 
of  a  God  that  he  should  have  inherited  some  vicious 
propensity.  Another  person  finds  it  equally  irreconcil- 
able that  his  structure  leaves  him  able  to  originate  a 
vice,  and  transmit  it  to  his  children.  But  as  soon  as 
these  people  feel  so,  their  reconciliation  with  God  has 
begun  :  they  have  an  ideal  which  makes  them  con- 
scious of  the  discrepancy,  and  sets  them  to  work  to 
reduce  it,  by  using  that  law  of  their  nature  which  ex- 
presses the  full  purpose  of  God.  It  is  the  same  law 
of  the  divine  nature  that  subsidizes  universal  evil  to 
justify  its  mode  of  operation,  in  furtherance  of  a  cre- 
ating plan.  Whether  these  persons  succeed  or  not  in 
this  redemption,  does  not  affect  the  fact  that  they  are 
religious  only  when  they  substitute  this  method  of 
obedience  to  their  own  law  for  any  verbal  statements 
or  beliefs  in  schemes.  They  bind  themselves  to  God 
by  a  natural  tie  of  likeness  to  Him  ;  remorse  is  the 
natural  pain  at  the  discovery  that  tlie  tie  is  threatened 
or  enfeebled,  spiritual  joy  is  the   natural   mood  of  a 

8* 


1^8  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

return  to  harmony.  The  tendency  feels  contented 
when  it  is  gratified. 

A  person  finds  it  irreconcilable  with  his  instinct 
concerning  God,  that  he  should  have  been  born  in 
ignorance  and  wretchedness,  'a  prey  to  poverty,  the 
victim  of  cunning  or  tyranny.  Perhaps  he  is  so  little 
able  to  help  himself  that  his  only  spiritual  life  is  resig- 
nation. He  is  doomed  to  that  when  he  feels  secretly 
entitled  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  his  human  wants. 
These  compose  his  natural  law.  And  they  are  claims 
of  his  vested  in  more  fortunate  individuals,  who  are 
thus  instinctively  brought  to  his  side.  Reconciliation 
with  God  begins  through  the  religious  action  of  these 
persons  who  perceive  what  is  the  natural  law  of  every 
human  being.  The  true  mediatorial  scheme  is  the 
interference  of  practical  sympathy,  which  appears  in 
charitable,  social  and  political  influence.  Thus  his 
own  law  is  liberated,  and  he  too  can  begin  religion 
by  applying  this  ready-made  element  of  reconciliation 
to  other  souls. 

The  laws  of  things  are  the  material  of  the  right 
thinking  in  which  religion  has  its  root.  Right  living 
is  derived  from  them  alone.  A  part  of  this  right 
thinking  consists  of  the  active  moral  tendency  that 
emphasizes  the  health,  sanity,  and  righteousness  that 
is  in  all  things.  What  a  reconciler  of  man  with  God 
is  Social  Science,  and  what  an  atoner  for  every  orig- 
inal taint !  It  directly  attacks  the  evils  which  prevent 
mankind  from  becoming  truly  religious,  and  proclaims 
tlie  right  theology  —  that  bad  living  of  all  kinds  nour- 
ishes this  hypochondria  of  a  feud  between  earth  and 
heaven.     Beginning  at  the  very  root,   it  shows  that 


AN    AMERICAN    ATONEMENT.  1 79 

imperfect  ventilation  is  symbolical  of  all  the  rest  of 
the  irreligioLisness  that  keeps  mankind  disconsolate 
by  making  so  much  corrupted  blood.  Whatever  dis- 
turbs the  proper  aeration  of  the  contents  of  the  lungs 
puts  men  in  training  for  any  kind  of  craze.  For 
poisoned  blood  infects  the  brain  with  poisoned  thought 
and  feeling.  Bad  air,  bad  food,  bad  drink,  alters  the 
blood-disks,  and  suborns  for  villainy  the  finest  struct- 
ures. Therefore  Social  Science  begins  a  true  vicari- 
ous mission  by  the  expressive  and  beautiful  action  of 
cutting  windows  in  dead  walls,  to  let  the  sky  fall 
through  into  Stygian  apartments ;  of  establishing 
draughts  that  carry  oft^  noxious  vapors  and  admit  the 
close  pursuing  air,  well  cooked  by  the  sun's  actinic  ray. 
Then  its  ban  is  put  upon  bad  meats  and  unwholesome 
tricks  in  the  preparation  of  food.  Thirty  miles  of  tub- 
ing in  the  skin  are  cleared  out,  and  the  sewerage  of  the 
human  system  established,  so  that  every  internal  organ 
sheds  baseness  by  insensible  transpiration.  Light,  air, 
and  water,  that  undoctrinal  Trinity,  threefold  Unity 
that  makes  and  sustains  the  world,  casts  out  from  the 
brains  of  its  children  their  legion  of  devils  :  the  very 
swine  flourish  by  cleanness  enough  to  refuse  to  let 
them  enter.  There  is  nothing  with  a  love  of  impurity 
so  insfrained  as  to  take  them  in.  So  that  men  and 
women  are  seen  glorifying  God  by  sitting  clothed  and 
in  their  right  mind.  What  recorded  triviality  of  mir- 
acle can  match  the  vast  power  of  this  simple  spell  of 
natural  religion  ! 

Reconciliation  is  the  assumption  or  recovery  by  all 
organs  and  tendencies  of  their  proper  action.  What 
a  religious  ecstasy  is  health  !    Its  free  step  claims  every 


l8o  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

meadow  that  is  glad  with  flowers  ;  its  bubbling  spirits 
fill  the  cup  of  wide  horizons  and  drip  down  their 
brims  ;  its  thankfulness  is  the  prayer  that  takes  pos- 
session of  the  sun  by  day,  and  the  stars  by  night. 
Every  dancing  member  of  the  body  w^hirls  off  the 
soul  to  tread  the  measures  of  great  feelings,  and  God 
hears  people  saying,  "  How  precious  also  are  thy 
thoughts,  how  great  is  the  sum  of  them  ;  when  I 
awake  I  am  still  with  thee."  Yes,  —  "  when  I 
awake,"  but  not  before  :  not  while  the  brain  is  satu- 
rated with  venous  blood,  till  it  falls  into  comatose 
doctrines  and  goes  maundering  with  its  attack  of 
mediatorial  piety  and  grace  ;  not  while  a  stomach,  de- 
praved by  fried  food,  apothecary's  drugs,  and  iron- 
clad pastry  (that  target  impenetrable  by  digestion), 
supplies  the  constitution  with  its  vale  of  tears,  ruin  of 
mankind,  and  better  luck  hereafter.  When  all  my 
veins  flow  unobstructed,  and  lift  to  the  level  of  my 
eyes  the  daily  gladness  that  finds  a  gate  at  every  pore  ; 
when  the  roaming  gifts  come  home  from  Nature  to 
turn  the  brain  into  a  hive  of  cells  full  of  yellow  sun- 
shine, the  spoil  of  all  the  chalices  of  the  earth  beneath 
and  the  heavens  above,  —  then  I  am  the  subject  of  a 
Revival  of  Religion  :  she  wakes  the  brooding  thought 
to  observe  that  the  whole  man,  from  the  crown  of  the 
head  to  the  sole  of  the  feet,  and  all  the  tender,  bitter, 
glorious  things  that  transpire  within  that  compass, 
are  reconciled  to  God. 

Let  the  ideal  impulse,  which  clothes  itself  in  the 
forms  of  art,  rejoice  to  have  left  behind  whole  galleries 
of  pictures,  which  age  is  blackening  for  their  libels 
upon  the  divine  nature.     Mankind  will  be  fortunate 


f 


AN   AMERICAN    ATONEMENT.  J  Si 

if  Calvinistic  gloom,  and  the  "  agony  of  impotence  " 
of  the  Catholic  ascetic,  have  fallen  out  of  the  moral 
sense  by  the  time  those  painted  outrages  have  rotted 
from  their  frames.  What  can  a  robust  country  do 
with  those  hospital  silhouettes  of  saints,  save  perhaps 
to  preserve  them  for  warnings  in  museums  of  morbid 
anatomy,  as  lusus  naturce^  whose  malformation  is  a 
halo? 

The  countiy  itself  is  a  Consolator,  colored  too  heart- 
ily for  the  thin-blooded  palette  of  Scheffer,  whose 
central  figure  seems  to  say  to  the  miserable  groups : 
"  I'm  sorry  for  you,  but  you  see  how  melancholy  I 
look,  and  that  must  be  your  comfort."  Liberty  shores 
up  the  bruised  reed,  binds  up  the  broken  hearts,  and 
summons  every  oppressed  spirit  into  the  natural  deliv- 
erance of  health,  usefulness,  and  glad  cooperation. 
On  the  freshly-stretched  canvas  of  American  land- 
scapes plenty  of  Ecce  Hojhos  breathe  and  live,  who 
hide  their  wounds  lest  they  fill  the  eyes  of  beholders 
with  a  mediaeval  pity,  and  blur  the  strong  lines  that 
the  muscles  wrested  from  daylight  and  expectation. 
The  heads  droop  with  the  weight  of  smiles  gathered 
from  new-mown  fields. 

And  though  Dantes  are  scarce,  there  are  plenty  of 
Beatrices  who  draw  manhood  up  to  substantial  para- 
dises without  flattening:  their  womanhood  into  the  lack- 
lustre  sanctity  of  the  painter;  such  a  Beatrice  as  he 
has  drawn,  would  make  us  first  ashamed  of  Dante, 
that  such  a  sexless  tenuity  could  hold  his  paradise  sus- 
pended. The  fine  art  of  healthy  living  must  furnisli 
well-grown  subjects  to  the  Muses  of  America. 

A  great  deal  of  anxious  thought  is  given  to  the  difli* 


1 82  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

cult  problem  of  the  Social  Evil,  which  drains  religion 
out  of  men  and  women  by  the  way  of  their  life-blood, 
and  leaves  them  flaccid  and  corrupted.  How  can  it  be 
reconciled  with  that  artless  intention  of  Nature's  pro- 
creative  force,  which,  as  it  reaches  personality  in  the 
reserve  of  woman,  suggests  the  divine  purity?  The 
question  is  no  sooner  asked  than  Social  Science, 
leaving  to  the  police  the  pastime  of  arresting  female 
street-Kaunters  and  letting  their  male  danglers  go  free, 
undertakes  the  business  of  a  real  reconciliation,  by  ad- 
vocating conditions  that  will  make  woman  the  mistress 
of  an  honorable  and  unassailable  position.  When 
she  gains  that,  by  finding  avenues  of  labor  open  to  her 
that  are  now  choked  by  men,  so  that  she  can  show 
she  is  deserving  of  a  man's  wages  for  doing  a  man's 
work,  as  she  already  does  in  many  a  school-house 
and  counting-room,  she  will  become  the  mistress 
of  her  person.  Her  natural  law  revolts  at  her  own 
degradation,  and  agonizes  to  be  reconciled  with  God. 
What  can  she  do  for  herself?  Stand  out  of  the  way, 
and  let  her  see.  Let  every  door  aswing  :  she  will  ap- 
proach it,  look  in,  and  enter  if  she  sees  that  the  work 
inside  corresponds  to  her  temperament.  And  when 
she  does  things  so  well,  that  men  will  cease  saying 
they  are  pretty  well  done  for  a  woman,  let  her  have 
every  cent  that  her  work  legitimately  brings.  If 
woman  undertakes  to  paint,  to  draw,  to  model,  to  write 
verses,  let  her  not  enter  the  market  of  complaisance 
with  inferior  articles  and  expect  to  draw  pay  on  the 
strength  of  her  sex.  But  when  she  equals  man  in  what- 
ever trades  are  appropriate  to  her  genius,  —  behind 
all  counters,  in  all  counting-rooms,  at  the  desk  of  the 


AN    AMERICAN    ATONEMENT.  1 83 

calculator  or  the  writer,  in  the  school-room  and  pro- 
fessor's chair,  —  let  her  draw,  cent  for  cent  with  man, 
the  wages  that  reconcile  them  both  with  God.  See 
these  spruce  men  monopolizing  industries  that  her 
nice  tact  and  delicate  taste  could  fill,  at  least,  as  well. 
Stand  aside  ;  go  into  fields  that  are  enriched  by  mus- 
cular and  virile  vigor  ;  vacate  those  places  :  the  honor 
and  self-respect  of  woman  wait  to  fill  them.  Society 
has  fallen  sick  with  the  struggles  and  agonies  of  the 
unemployed.  Marriage  itself  is  polluted  by  the  exi- 
gency. Poverty  must  make  a  match,  or  make  an 
assignation,  or  make  some  bargain  scandalous  to  the 
man  who  drives  it.  More  shillings  conceded  to  the 
making  of  a  shirt  would  double  the  religion  of  man- 
kind. 

Political  science  also  undertakes  the  task  of  recon- 
ciliation when  it  recurs  to  the  natural  law  of  mankind, 
as  the  foundation  for  its  organizing  skill,  to  secure 
every  man's  title  to  life,  liberty,  and  happiness.  It  is 
a  favorite  saying  of  some  critics  of  our  country,  that 
they  would  vastly  prefer  to  be  ruled  by  one  man  than 
by  a  million  ;  and  that  a  man  preserves  his  self-respect 
better  when  he  lets  himself  be  used  by  one  great  in- 
tellect, than  when  he  is  tyrannized  over  by  a  vulgar, 
passionate  and  unreflective  popular  opinion.  This  is 
the  sentiment  that  prolongs  the  vulgar  vices  of  the 
people.  Wherever  this  creed  of  an  oligarchy  flour- 
ishes, the  common  people  do  not  rise  out  of  their 
degradation ;  they  will  be  "  mean  whites,"  "  poor 
trash,"  servile  in  peace,  truculent  in  war.  Put  any 
weapon  in  their  hand  but  intelligence,  and  they  will 
parody  the  pride  of  their  owners,  and  scrawl   it  in 


184  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

blood.  Their  limited  ideas  are  the  reverse  of  the 
coin  which  is  stamped  with  the  limited  sympathy  of 
their  rulers.  Read  one  side,  and  you  need  not  turn  it 
to  know  what  is  written  on  the  other.  Mean,  cramped, 
superstitious,  lazy,  stolid  minds  exist  side  by  side  with 
fine,  fastidious,  secluded,  selfish  intellects.  Like 
master,  like  man ;  in  one  the  narrowness  borrows  the 
traits  of  culture,  in  the  other  it  is  stamped  by  the 
barbarism  which  this  culture  maintains  for  its  sole 
neighborhood.  There's  a  whole  wood-full  of  spind- 
ling and  awkward  sticks  to  one  big  and  shapely  tree  : 
they  protect  it  from  the  weather  by  their  extent  of 
abortiveness.  But  a  handsome  wood  for  shade  and 
timber  is  the  one  where  all  the  trees  range  pretty 
evenly,  and  are  banded  together  in  mutual  and  per- 
manent conspiracy  against  the  storm. 

But  the  doctrine  that  all  men  are  equal  may  easily 
be  misunderstood  to  mean  that  no  men  are  superior, 
or  that  if  they  are  it  must  be  in  consequence  of  some 
fraud  upon  the  whole.  The  equal  right  to  enjoy  an 
opportunity  is  not  derived  from,  or  authoi^zed  by,  an 
identity  of  mental  and  ethical  proficiency,  any  more 
than  the  chance  to  be  health}-  results  from  a  perfect 
sanitary  condition  of  all.  When  such  an  error  infects 
the  minds  of  men  who  crave  some  share  in  the  oppor- 
tunities of  their  fellows,  it  postpones  their  own  cause 
by  mixing  with  it  crude  and  passionate  schemes  of 
social  jDromotion,  unscientific  theories  upon  the  rela- 
tion .between  capital  and  labor,  and  jealous  dread  of 
the  successes  of  talent.  The  markets  of  the  world  are 
not  controlled  by  equality,  but  by  difference  ;  and  in 
the  whole  range  of  differences   a   sense   of  justice  is 


AN    AMERICAN    ATONEMENT.  1 85 

found  in  union  with  the  mental  superiority  that  is 
essential  to  provide  for  men  their  o^^portunities.  They 
will  inevitably  enjoy  more  than  their  own  attainment 
can  represent,  provided  they  do  not  make  their  lack 
of  attainment  a  claim  to  something  besides  justice  :  to 
encroachment,  for  instance,  upon  just  superiority. 
Wherever  a  theory  of  technical  equality  prevails,  the 
poor  and  miserable  men  become  the  victims  of  minds 
which  have  neither  nobility  nor  superiority ;  mere 
knacks  they  are,  that  avail  themselves  of  the  theory 
that  spawns  them. 

If  all  men's  proficiencies  were  absolutely  equal,  all 
opportunities  would  disappear.  All  men  would  be 
impartially  cursed  by  the  monotony  of  being  foe- 
similes  of  each  other.  Motion  and  life  cannot  begin 
till  the  mass  settles  into  differing  parts  ;  then  Nature 
selects  her  moment  and  makes  her  first  gesture.  Thus 
the  nebula  resolved  itself  into  planets  of  varying  bulk 
and  movement,  to  bestow  a  choiring  coherence  on  the 
sky.  So  men  would  be  to-day  a  herd  of  mammoths 
if  their  structure  had  not  involved  the  first  benefit  of 
inequality.  When  that  pledges  itself  to  generalize 
all  opportunities,  the  benefit  is  prolonged  and  refined  ; 
the  more  brutal  distinctions  begin  to  disappear,  and 
no  passion  but  that  of  emulation  is  fomented. 

Natural  inequalities,  which  occur  through  vari- 
eties of  cerebral  structure  and  chances  for  culture, 
appeal  to  the  Republic  for  a  reconciling  principle  that 
shall  preserve  a  sense  of  divine  love  and  justice,  and 
mediate  between  fatality  of  birth  and  the  native  title 
to  all  oj^portunities.  The  country  is  the  atoning  in- 
carnation that  steps  in  between  God  and  man,  lifts  all 


l86  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

maimed  lives  into  consideration,  and  assumes  their 
liabilities.  Its  principle  is  this  :  the  small  and  mean 
men  are  valuable,  and  that  is  their  relation  to  God. 

Every  man  has  by  birth  some  function,  place,  and 
service,  and  must  have  some  opportunity.  All  the 
23ersons  are  the  country :  the  land  is  nothing  except 
for  the  persons  to  stand  on  w^hile  they  are  country  ; 
the  institutions  are  nothing  but  personal  conveniences  ; 
rails  and  telegraphs,  states,  governments,  trades  and 
industries  are  only  expressions  of  the  personal  con- 
sciousness. When  you  say,  "  all  the  persons,  without 
distinction  of  sex  or  color,  are  the  country,"  you  en- 
dow it  with  all  the  intelligence,  and  surrender  to  it  the 
only  advantage  it  can  ever  have  over  all  the  ignorance. 
You  liberate  all  the  latent  superiority,  and  give  it  con- 
trol over  all  the  barbarous  and  all  the  refined  inferior- 
ity. Either  one  or  the  other  is  a  real  evil  until  all 
the  persons  are  let  loose  to  put  it  down.  Three 
hundred  thousand  highly  intelligent  and  well-dressed 
egotists  will  plunge  a  country  into  the  vast  embar- 
rassments of  blood  and  debt :  thirty  million  ordinary 
people  will  drag  her  out  again.  There  is  enough  man- 
hood and  honesty  permeating  the  mass  to  neutralize 
its  own  follies.  Cut  down  the  mass  by  millions,  in 
order  to  cull  the  number  that  seem  to  you  capable  of 
exercising  the  function  of  governing,  and  the  follies 
grow  rampant  that  would  be  checked  and  counter- 
balanced by  all  the  sense  of  all  the  persons.  There 
must  be  great  masses  of  people  for  yielding  the  pre- 
ponderance of  moral  feeling  that  you  require  in  every 
critical  moment.  Who  are  the  best  persons  .f*  The 
best  feeling  is  the  best.     You  cannot  select  your  per- 


AN    AMERICAN    ATONEMENT.  iS'J 

sons  ;  but  take  them  all,  and  nature  will  save  you  the 
trouble  of  selection.  Not  a  drop  of  perfume  will  you 
get  out  of  a  thousand,  or  ten  thousand  rose-leaves. 
Boil  them  down  by  acres,  and  the  subtle  diffusion  is 
distilled. 

The  Swiss  city  of  Basle  is  connected  with  the  oppo- 
site shore  by  a  bridge  that  is  famous  as  the  scene  of 
mediaeval  encounters ;  they  were  animated  by  the 
excessive  mutual  hatred  of  the  people  who  lived  at 
either  end  of  it.  On  the  Basle  side  there  stands  a 
tower  upon  which  a  huge  face,  with  a  tongue  lolling 
out,  still  reminds  us  of  the  standing  contempt  of  the 
inhabitants  for  their  opposite  neighbors.  Color  and 
dialect,  manners  and  customs,  are  the  bridges  whose 
either  end  is  pertinaciously  fought  for.  They  have 
kept  us  apart  when  they  might  just  as  well  be  used 
for  bonds  of  union,  since  all  feet  travel  in  the  same 
way,  although  the  faces  look  as  if  they  were  loath  to 
follow.  These  physical  peculiarities  of  an  original 
diversity,  or  of  varieties  which  have  sprung  up  in  the 
struggles  of  races  for  existence,  mask  a  deeper  inii- 
formity  of  the  blood,  which  represents  the  universality 
of  the  moral  sense.  Mental  differences,  also,  there 
are,  which  seem  to  have  put  forth  these  physical  signs 
in  correspondence  ;  and  manners  partake  of  the  dis- 
crimination. But  the  moral  sense  is  permanently  the 
same  ;  and,  as  it  binds  all  men  together,  it  reconciles 
all  men  to  God.  You  cannot  point  to  a  vital  differ- 
ence between  the  conscience  of  the  East  and  West. 
Cunning  and  falseness  can  be  found  everywhere,  but 
also  a  prevailing  sense  of  right  and  wrong.  Men  are 
constantly  breaking  the  golden  rule,  but  the  rule  is  an 


1 88  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

original  property  of  every  race,  and  its  infractions  are 
judged  by  its  own  cogency,  in  the  same  style,  every- 
where. Men  vary  in  their  habits  of  taking  advantage 
of  each  other,  but  they  agree  that  advantages  should 
not  be  taken.  Nations  may  be  distinguished  for  the 
prevalence  of  some  vice  or  two,  but  they  are  all  alike 
in  a  general  sense  of  what  is  vicious  ;  and  the  best 
spirits  in  all  countries  disclaim  the  evils  and  recom- 
mend the  virtues  of  human  nature. 

How  mischievous  it  will  be  if  people  continue  to 
allovy  tlieir  antipathies  to  influence  their  politics,  es- 
pecially when  the  whole  world  sends  to  us  its  repre- 
sentative complexions,  as  we  stand  midway  between 
the  West  of  Europe  and  the  East  of  Asia,  like  power- 
ful youth,  towards  whose  shoulders  the  father  and  the 
mother  stretch  forth  a  hand.  This  gathering  of  mani- 
fold forces  to  stock  a  new  cradle  of  mankind  is  deter- 
mined by  the  instinct  of  humanity  to  be  born  again, 
that  it  may  at  length  enjoy  its  inalienable  rights ; 
and  every  stranger  contributes  mental  difference,  but 
spiritual  identity.  Which  is  the  larger  and  more  dis- 
interested function  of  his  nature,  which  the  more  re- 
generative, which  yields  the  diviner  element  towards  a 
reconstruction  of  society  ?  The  conscience  which  ac- 
companies this  irresistible  exodus  towards  a  promised 
land.  Will  conscience  swamp  the  country  ?  No  :  but 
smartness  will,  and  the  brutality  of  mature  exclusive- 
ness.  We  ought  to  welcome  all  these  illiterate  and 
unfashionable  children,  who  cannot  help  bringing  the 
raw  material  of  moral  sense  to  repair  our  waste  of  it 
at  every  pore. 

The  art  of  living  is  the  art  of  bringing  into  use  all 


AN    AMERICAN    ATONEMENT.    '  1 89 

the  moral  sense  there  Is.  And  this  requires  a  coopera- 
tion of  all  sexes  and  conditions,  to  set  free  unexpected 
advantages.  For  the '  opportunity  which  Religion 
seeks  is  simply  a  soul ;  when  she  has  found  one,  its 
emancipation  from  ignorance  and  mean  neighbor- 
hoods begins.  The  soul  need  not  be  gifted  ;  can  you 
add  a  perfume  to  the  violet  of  conscience?  Relig- 
ion stoops  to.  find  the  humility  that  makes  her  mag- 
nificent. All  that  she  asks  is,  that  some  modest  soul 
shall  be  suffering  for  the  touch  of  her  hand,  which 
decomposes  poverty  and  liberates  it  into  great  expan- 
sion of  force  and  brightness.  Take  clear  water,  enough 
to  balance  a  single  grain  of  weight,  and  notice  how  in- 
sipid and  colorless  it  is,  and  not  to  be  suspected  of  any 
pretension  to  be  an  agent.  But  Professor  Faraday  lays 
upon  it  the  hand  of  decomposition,  and  forth  leaps  an 
electrical  force  which  he  estimated  at  eight  hundred 
thousand  discharges  of  his  large  Leyden  battery.  And 
he  declared  that  the  chemical  action  of  a  single  grain 
of  water  on  four  grains  of  zinc  would  yield  electricity, 
equal  in  quantity  to  a  powerful  thunder-storm.  God's 
will,  that  melts  or  shatters,  is  imprisoned  in  small 
bulks.  How  it  thunders  and  lightens  when  a  moral 
Yea  leaps  from  a  million  nobodies  into  the  reconciling 
equilibrium  of  God  ! 

The  economies  that  are  still  hidden  in  the  refuse- 
heaps  of  civilization  are  destined  to  reenforce  Religion. 
Use  and  beauty  are  waiting  to  be  raked  out  of  the 
rubbish  to  serve  her  turn.  The  London  scavengers 
remove  the  ash-heaps  from  all  the  houses  of  the  me- 
tropolis. In  them  are  waste  pieces  of  coal,  and  the 
"  breeze,"   or  coal-dust,   and  half-burnt  ashes.     After 


190 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


selling  the  larger  pieces  of  coal  to  the  poor,  the  refuse 
"  breeze "  is  enough  to  bake  all  the  bricks  that  are 
used  in  rebuilding  the  city.  What  object  is  there 
without  a  law  of  its  own,  waiting  to  be  put  to  its  ap- 
propriate use?  In  building  the  city  of  God,  Religion 
is  not  deceived  by  appearances.  Give  her  just  a  soul, 
and  she  is  not  too  proud  to  utilize  what  God  was 
proud  enough  to  make. 

If  it  were  not  dangerous  to  use  old  phraseology, 
which  the  sects  have  worn  to  rags  and  infected  with 
their  whims,  there  is  reason  why  we  should  say,  "  God 
was  in  Christ  reconciling  man  unto  himself,"  because 
he  was  one  of  God's  natural  opportunities,  and  all  of 
them  are  called  to  the  work  of  redemption.  Every 
good  thing  liberates ;  it  may  be  without  comeliness, 
despised  and  rejected,  and  its  visage  marred,  but 
Religion  can  derive  from  it  comfort  and  perpetuity. 

We  have  this  ministry  of  reconciliation.  It  is  not 
confided  to  a  class,  but  Is  held  in  trust  by  all  right 
thinking  and  living.  It  enlists  the  whole  of  our  intel- 
ligence, uses  all  the  tools  of  science  and  civilization, 
and  when  it  restores  virtue  to  our  bodies  is  certain  that 
it  will  redeem  our  souls. 


VIII. 

FALSE   AND   TRUE   PRAYING. 

THERE  can  be  no  argument  drawn  from  Scrip- 
ture, if  the  purpose  be  to  find  whether  praying 
has  any  intrinsic  authority  in  human  nature ;  for 
Scripture  represents  prayer  as  directed  towards  the 
most  heterogeneous  objects,  and  has  a  bias  towards 
supposing  all  of  them  secured.  Books  and  traditions 
may  record  the  ancient  methods,  but  they  neither  im- 
pair nor  explain  the  instinct  which  tends  to  personal 
expressiveness  towards  divine  powers.  If  we  under- 
took to  account  for  all  the  texts  that  put  implicit  con- 
fidence in  praying,  we  should  be  involved  in  a  dreary 
exegesis,  when  we  might  make  it  all  superfluous  by 
showing,  and  putting  a  strong  accent  upon,  the  pith 
of  the  question.  The  pith  always  lies  in  the  law :  it 
attracts,  like  amber,  all  light  and  groundless  customs, 
which  cling  to  something  that  is  essentially  different 
from  themselves.  It  is  a  pity  that  man  values  them 
because  he  sees  that  they  are  attracted ;  they  are  the 
accidents  of  neighborhood,  the  fluff' and  feathers  which 
eddy  about  in  the  air  of  every  age,  shaken  out  of  crude 
intelligence,  and  drawn  into  the  whirl  of  real  forces. 
They  must  be  picked  oft'  and  swept  away.     But  they 


193  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

are  so  strongly  attracted,  that  perhaps  what  is  their 
pertinacity  may  appear  to  be  rudeness  in  the  hand  that 
ventures  to  detach  them. 

The  prince,  in  the  fairy  tale,  went  hunting,  and  the 
holla  of  the  chase  brought  him  out  upon  a  mountain- 
spur,  whence  he  saw  the  growth  of  a  hundred  years 
that  hid  and  imprisoned  the  castle  where  Beauty  slept. 
His  instinct  shouldered  a  path  through  the  matted  un- 
dergrowth, till  he  penetrated  into  the  court-yard  where 
all  forms  of  life  stood  arrested  in  the  acts  of  a  century 
ago.  Through  cobwebbed  vestibules,  sprawling  scul- 
lions, frozen  men-at-arms,  slim  serving-maids  in  mid 
coquetry,  and  roysterers  petrified  in  the  moment  of 
their  spurious  inspiration,  his  quivering  heart  guided 
him  to  the  one  breathing  centre  that  gathered  all  this 
motley  life  around  it ;  the  only  pulse  that  was  not 
menial.  Time-honored  j^ostures  and  venerable  sleep 
hardly  raised  his  curiosity.  Perhaps  they  suffered 
from  his  disdain.  But  some  things  may  be  pardoned 
to  a  man  who  cannot  wait  to  be  properly  announced 
by  an  obsolete  chamberlain,  on  the  threshold  of  the 
kiss  that  rallies  Beauty  to  his  arms.  All  the  hangers- 
on  rouse  also,  but  go  about  their  business.  She  only 
is  the  law  of  all  the  scene. 


Dr.  Hooker,  in  his  Himalayan  Journals,  describes 
the  praying-mill,  used  by  the  inhabitants  of  Thibet,  as 
a  leathern  cylinder  placed  upright  in  a  frame  ;  a  pro- 
jecting piece  of  iron  strikes  a  little  bell  at  each  one  of 
the  revolutions,  which  are  caused  by  an  elbowed  axle 
and  a  string.     The  written  prayers  are  placed  within 


FALSE  AND  TRUE  PRAYING.  1 93 

the  cylinder,  and  whoever  pulls  the  string  repeats  his 
prayers  as  often  as  the  bell  rings.  There  is  also  a 
kind  that  is  made  to  be  turned  by  water ;  on  the  cylin- 
der the  words,  "Om  Mani  Padmi  Om,"  —  Hail  to  Him 
of  the  Lotus  and  Jewel  —  are  painted,  and  a  spindle, 
which  terminates  In  a  wheel,  keeps  these  revolving. 
When  we  consider  how  laborious  is  most  of  the  public 
praying  in  all  countries,  this  is  the  greatest  labor-saving 
machine  ever  invented.  And  Baron  Schllllno;  must  be 
regarded  as  one  of  the  principal  benefactors  of  the 
human  race,  for  he  presented  the  Mongol  Llamaites  in 
China  with  two  hundred  and  fifty  million  impressions 
of  this  prayer.*  He  had  it  set  up  so  as  to  go  five 
thousand  times  upon  a  large  sheet,  and  sent  them  fifty 
thousand  copies  of  that  sheet.  One  may  calculate  that 
if  a  machine  can  be  made  to  revolve  five  hundred 
times  in  a  minute  w^th  one  of  these  sheets  inside,  the 
eflect  is  the  same  as  if  two  and  a  half  millions  of 
tongues  pronounced  the  prayer ;  quite  the  same. 
There  Is,  indeed,  in  a  private  museum  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, a  little  ball,  which  is  attested  by  a  long  docu- 
ment in  the  Thibetan  language  to  have  been  produced 
out  of  nothing  by  prayer  that  was  kept  up  for  forty 
days.  These  balls,  so  originated,  of  course  are  rare ; 
but  the  Llamaites  believe  that,  once  procured,  they  can 
propagate  of  themselves.  However  that  may  be,  the 
litde  precatory  cylinder  Is  a  great  convenience,  for  the 
natives  keep  them  spinning  in  their  laps  while  they  sit 
and  converse  together.  According  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Mussulman  it  is  the  salvation  of  the  world,  for  they 

*  J.  G.  Kohl's  Russia,  p.  91.     Am.  Ed. 
9      . 


IC)4  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

believe  that  if  a  moment  should  occur  during  which 
the  name  of  Allah  was  nowhere  offered  up,  it  would 
be  a  chance  for  chaos.  The  Greeks  and  Russians  have 
a  method  that  must  be  more  trying  to  the  individual : 
it  is  that  of  saying  Gospodi po?nilui  twelve  times  in  a 
breath,  —  literally,  then,  without  inspiration. 

We  smile  at  these  attempts  of  the  finite  mind  to 
catch  the  infinite  in  a  mill  and  extort  the  daily  grist. 
Perhaps  we  subscribe  to  missionary  funds  for  opening 
the  slant  eyes  of  Mongols  and  Tartars  to  the  unsub- 
stantial nature  of  machine-praying.  But  when  the 
worthy  clergyman,  in  the  course  of  his  routine  on  Sun- 
day morning,  said,  "  O  Lord,  thou  knowest  not  half 
the  wickedness  there  is  in  this  place,"  and  another,  no 
less  worthy,  and  a  model  of  learning  and  grace,  ground 
out  a  petition  that  the  Lord  would  make  "  all  the  in- 
temperate temperate,  and  all  the  industrious  dustri- 
ous,"  we  perceive  that  the  string  finds  some  adit 
through  the  Himalayan  range,  and  dangles  here. 
Baron  Schilling's  stereotyped  contrivance  cannot  yield 
a  greater  number  of  phrases  ;  and  Daniel  Webster's 
drum-beat  of  England,  which  follows  the  morning  sun 
around  the  world,  is  paralleled  in  continuous  sonority 
and  emptiness  one  morning,  at  least,  of  every  week. 
For  the  jDublic  prayers  of  the  civilized  are  watered 
with  phraseology  which  comes  dripping  from  the  well 
of  memory,  and  which,  by  this  time,  we  should  think 
might  be  learned  above  by  rote,  if  the  invisible  has 
ears  that  tolerate.  Do  we  not  know  the  style  of  every 
meeting-house,  and  the  difierent  contrivances  to  so 
conclude  a  prayer  as  to  sj^lice  it  with  the  shore-end  of 
the  invisible?     A  friend  of  mine,  who  was  much  puz- 


FALSE    AND    TRUE    PRAYING.  19^ 

zlcd  to  account  for  the  genesis  of  a  stocking,  surmised, 
at  length,  that  the  women  must  imagine  the  first  round, 
and  then  knit  on  to  that.  Is  it  improper  to  suggest 
that  more  than  one  imaginary  round  of  ascription  fails 
to  start  any  thing  that  can  weave  the  comfort  of  heaven 
for  the  soul  ? 

But  our  false  praying  is  not  limited  to  these  tricks 
of  pulpit  iteration,  repeated  from  books,  or  dropped 
into  the  mosaic  of  extemporaneous  discourse  ;  nor  to 
those  parade-prayers  which  open  festivals  and  town- 
meetings,  and  sometimes  from  the  court-house  bench 
supplicate  that  the  judge's  decisions  may  be  overruled 
for  good.  But  the  whole  modern  theory  of  prayer  is 
vitiated  by  various  suppositions,  that  heaven  needs  to 
be  informed  upon  our  domestic  and  public  matters, 
that  a  natural  law  may  be  modified  or  suspended  at 
human  entreaty,  that  certain  gifts  may  be  had  for  the 
asking  and  not  for  the  practising,  that  our  whole  vital 
economy  can  let  on  the  invisible  as  by  the  turning  of 
a  faucet.  The  most  mischievous  of  these  suppositions 
is  the  one  that  the  laws  of  nature  are  not  irreversible, 
but  lie  open  to  irruptions  of  ardent  longing,  so  that  the 
divine  mind  may  be  influenced  to  reconsider  itself  at 
the  importunity  of  its  creatures.  The  notion  of  Pastor 
Miiller,  who  founded  the  Rauhe  Haus  at  Hamburg, 
was  that,  whenever  the  funds  for  this  undertaking  fell 
short,  he  could  always  induce  heaven  to  impress  some 
person,  unknown  to  him,  to  send  the  requisite  amount. 
If  w^e  had  no  alternative  we  might  accept  his  convic- 
tion as  the  genuine  interj^retation  of  the  fact  that 
money  never  failed  him  in  the  direst  emergencies. 
But  as   his  project  became    known,   its   piety  was  a 


ir)'3  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

spontaneous  and  unspoken  prayer  to  all  like-minded 
souls,  and  their  instinct  did  not  need  the  urgency  of 
heaven.  It  was  already  heavenly,  and  flovv^ed  towards 
heaven's  charity  by  that  law  of  fraternal  intercourse 
which  heaven  seems  to  have  framed  especially  to  save 
its  time,  and  prevent  incessant  errand-going.  Noble 
people  are  God's  labor-saving  devices ;  they  are  re- 
sponses to  prayers  before  they  are  offered.  They  know 
what  we  have  need  of  before  we  ask  them. 

There  are  establishments  in  Germany  for  curing 
disease  by  prayer,  just  as  in  Greece  there  used  to  be 
temples  of  yEsculapius  where  the  priests  professed  to 
cure  diseases  by  dreaming.  The  temples  were  built 
in  the  midst  of  beautiful  scenery,  in  spots  where  every 
advantage  of  pure  air  and  running  water  existed  ;  and 
the  patient,  removed  from  all  annoyances,  confined  to 
strict  habits  of  diet  and  exercise,  attributed  his  cure 
to  the  regimen  which  might  be  hinted  in  his  dreams. 
The  dreaming  was  a  regular  business,  imposed  with 
religious  observance,  and  it  is  not  wonderful  that  the 
patient  had,  during  sleep,  suggestions  made  from  his 
physical  condition  through  a  brain  that  expected  and 
put  faith  in  them.  Nature  was  not  jealous  when  the 
waking  man  referred  her  sanative  influences  to  some 
alterant  that  he  dreamed  would  do  him  good.  His 
instinct  was  indeed  a  part  of  her  process ;  and  many 
a  lucky  dream  enriched  the  medical  science  of  an- 
tiquity. 

The  Protestant  Pastor  Blumhardt  is  at  the  head  of 
an  establishment  at  Boll  Bad,  in  the  Black  Forest, 
where  he  undertakes  to  cure  disease  by  prayer.  It  is 
a  cheerful  place,  where  patients  who  have  no  organic 


FALSE    AND    TRUE    PRAYING.  1 97 

diseases,  but  are  only  in  delicate  health,  get  pure  air 
and  good  food,  lead  a  natural  life  in  the  midst  of  quiet 
and  simple  habits,  with  plenty  of  exercise,  some  Rhine 
wine,  and  the  Pastor's  praying.  He  attributes  their 
improvement  only  to  the  praying,  but  admits  that  it 
has  no  effect  in  surgical  cases.  The  thread  of  his  ad- 
dress to  heaven  cannot  tie  an  artery,  nor  will  its 
stringency  brace  up  the  sagging  aneurism.  But  the 
patients  enjoy,  with  all  the  advantages  of  nature,  the 
rare  good  fortune  that  the  Pastor's  praying  consumes 
tlie  time  that  he  might  otherwise  devote  to  doctoring, 
so  that  his  supplications  are  the  only  drug. 

So  Dorothea  Trudel  founded  a  praying  establishment 
for  invalids  in  the  village  of  Mannedorf,  on  the  left  bank 
of  Lake  Zurich,  because  St.  James  said  the  prayer  of 
faith  should  save  the  sick.  She  was  greatly  persecuted 
b}^  the  doctors,  who  clung  to  their  faith  in  those  amu- 
lets called  prescriptions,  and  preferred  to  send  the 
patient  himself  into  the  invisible  rather  than  pretend 
that  it  might  intervene.  But  her  establishment  has 
acquired  great  fame,  for  the  reason  that  her  patients, 
drawn  largely  from  the  class  of  persons  afflicted  with 
mental  disorders,  find  every  soothing  and  restoring  in- 
fluence of  nature  and  good  sense.  The  secret  of  both 
systems  is  in  the  decisive  chances  secured  to  Nature 
to  knit  up  the  sleave  of  care,  which  a  restless  or  dissi- 
pated life  had  ravelled.  If  music  could  be  substituted 
for  the  praying,  a  true  function  of  heaven  would  assist 
in  every  case  :  for  David's  harp-strings  vibrated  with 
intercession,  and  wove  a  law  of  God  around  the  tu- 
mult of  the  kingly  heart. 

There    is    a    multitude   of  disorders    in   which    the 


IC)S  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

nerves  seem  shredded  into  fine  torments,  or  the  relation 
and  balance  of  the  different  brain-cells  is  dislocated, 
ideas  that  should  naturally  cohere  are  torn  apart,  till 
moodiness  and  mania  are  fed  by  every  ascending  drop 
of  blood.  Nature's  hospital  has  been  already  founded 
for  these  by  the  divine  sanity  which  anticipates  the 
prayers  extorted  by  our  sufferings.  Her  retreats  are 
full  of  simple  remedies :  as  v^hen  the  first  step 
towards  the  restoration  of  an  insane  person  has  been 
made  b}^  interesting  him  in  an  employment  that  seizes 
the  attention  and  leads  to  fresh  coordination  of  his 
thoughts,  —  when,  for  instance,  one  who  is  violent  and 
impracticable  sees  people  fishing  and  takes  a  fancy 
to  the  task.  He  engages  in  it,  becomes  amused  by 
the  action,  begins  to  mingle  harmlessly  with  his  fel- 
lows, because  God's  law  of  continuity  restores  the 
native  associations  of  the  mind. 

Whenever  it  is  observed  that  the  outpourings  of 
tender  minds,  which  have  been  attracted  to  the  side  of 
sorrow  and  debility,  can  soothe  and  uplift  the  soul, 
and  divide,  as  lusty  swimmers  do,  the  tumult,  the 
error  is  apt  to  be  made  that  this  is  because  God  is 
exorable.  But  it  is  man  who  is  exorable,  and  the 
prayers  play  like  the  voices  of  instruuients  upon  his 
sullcring.  The  comrade  hastens  to  his  side  when  he 
sees  him  fall,  puts  the  canteen  to  the  white  lips, 
moves  the  struck  form  beneath  the  shade  of  trees,  and 
conjures  up  the  expectation  that  the  wound  is  not  too 
(Iccj) ;  but,  if  it  be  too  deep,  all  the  regimental  chap- 
lains cannot  make  it  shallow.  The  divided  artery 
ebbs  as  tlicir  prayers  flow  ;  heaven  cannot  use  them  for 
tourniquet :   perhaps  it  counts  every  drop  of  the  heroic 


FALSE    AND    TRUE    PRAYING.  1 99 

blood  with  pity  equal  to  that  of  the  sad  groups  who 
lean  upon  their  arms,  to  watch  it  slip  away.  But  its 
intervention  has  already  been  conceded  through  their 
pity,  and  heaven  says,  "  The  means  you  have  upon 
the  spot,  the  help  you  can  rally,  is  the  aid  which  I 
bestow  :  if  I  had  more  you  should  not  see  him  die." 

It  is  very  strange  that  in  speculating  upon  the  effi- 
cacy of  prayer,  w^e  should  not  perceive  how  every 
event  that  is  unavoidable  is  the  test.  Does  any  reason 
exist  why  an  event  should  be  avoidable  ?  The  reason 
must  be  either  in  the  laws  that  are  involved,  or  in 
some  special  exception.  The  exception  may  be  spon- 
taneously bestowed,  or  in  answer  to  human  entreaty. 
But  if  the  reason  why  an  event  should  be  avoidable  be 
comprised  within  the  law  of  the  case,  heaven  need  not 
make  an  exception.  If  it  be  not  in  the  law,  and  if 
the  impending  event  requires  that  a  special  interposi- 
tion shall  make  up  for  the  deficiency,  then  comes  the 
test  question,  Why  does  it  not?  Does  heaven  pick 
its  cases,  or  is  the  prayer  not  agonizing  enough  to  take 
God's  will  by  violence  ?  What  kind  of  a  theory  of 
efficacy  is  that  which  the  focts  force  to  prove  that 
prayer  may  be  quite  as  ineffective  as  effective  ?  The 
terrible  refutation  ascends  from  every  floating  raft 
where  sailors  lift  a  desire  as  deep  as  the  ocean  beneath 
them  to  some  pity  farther  than  the  sky.  Heaven's 
answer  is,  that  whoso  lives  to  eat  his  last  comrade 
may  be  wafted  to  land  if  a  breeze  springs  u^d.  The 
real  pity  that  is  aboard  another  vessel  heaves  in  sight 
too  late.  Prayer  should  have  filled  the  sails. as  taut 
as  marble,  and  held  the  tiller  by  the  desperate  sailors 
afar  oft',  and  thrilled   the  needle   with   direction.     Is 


2<X)  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

heaven,  then,  fastidious?  What  quality  in  praying 
is  it  that  compels  its  intervention?  Saints  and  sin- 
ners, well-balanced  and  distorted  natures,  fibre  coarse 
and  fine,  recklessness  and  fidelity,  the  whole  of  human 
nature  learns  from  the  impartiality  of  every  year  that 
God  is  not  a  respecter  of  persons  ;  for  the  laws  which 
bring  rescue  are  incompetent  to  decide  upon  charac- 
ter. 

Sometimes  you  fling  your  heart  so  close  to  the 
breast  of  heaven,  that  every  angel  there  may  count 
your  pulse,  and  interpret  its  tumults  into  drums  that 
beat  to  summon  dear  deliverance,  to  bid  light  rally  to 
some  glazing  eye,  strength  to  the  side  of  some  slow 
attenuation,  if  God  will  respond  to  the  spotlessness 
of  a  whole  household,  and  spare  its  bliss.  Is  it  spared, 
and  not  by  law?  Is  it  not  spared,  and  in  spite  of 
entreaty?  It  is  strange  that  men  do  not  accept  on 
this  question  the  test  of  the  inevitable. 

In  the  countries  where  rain  abounds,  official  rain- 
beggars  find  their  occupation  gone.  But  in  rainless 
districts  they  still  make  a  merit  of  the  occasional 
shower.  This  is  not  more  inconsistent  than  our  induc- 
tion that  an  event  may  be  ascribed  to  prayer  which  is 
accounted  for  by  law.  During  the  great  Irish  famine, 
the  adjurations  to  the  Holy  Mother,  and  the  invocation 
of  all  the  saints,  —  nay,  what  was  far  more  moving  to 
infinite  pity,  the  distress  of  millions  of  Irishmen, — 
did  not  restore  a  single  potato  to  soundness.  And  the 
mothers  who  watched,  out  of  eyes  seared  by  famine, 
their  children  also  decaying,  discovered  after  prayer 
that  the  trouble  was  in  the  failure  of  a  crop,  and  the 
whole  broad,  fertile    heaven  would    not  extemporize 


FALSE    AND    TRUE    PRAYING.  20I 

another.  As  much  of  God's  pity  as  could  get  on  board 
a  few  vessels  laden  with  the  wheat  of  Chicago,  the 
apples,  corn,  potatoes  of  New  England,  strov^e  a  feeble 
intervention.  God  was  not  prevailed  on  to  show  us 
the  famine  :  we  saw  it,  and  saw  how  prayer  whitened 
on  its  lip  ;  the  gaunt  whimpers  borrowed  the  sea,  as  if 
their  tears  had  made  it,  that  they  might  go  voyaging  for 
pity  westward,  since  the  sky  above  was  foodless.  We 
could  not  reach  all  mouths,  but  the  test-event  feeds 
every  mind  with  the  religious  truth,  that  all  the  prov- 
idence there  is  nature  and  mankind  create.  Not  a 
sparrow  falls  without  His  care.  Yes,  but  it  falls. 
Was  the  agony  in  Gethsemane  official  or  natural? 
The  cross  was  natural,  and  stood  rooted  against 
prayer.  Or  was  all  this  only  a  dramatic  tableau,  in 
which  the  prayer  filled  the  role  of  incompetency 
merely  to  round  out  the  piece?  Providence  builds  its 
own  test-theory  upon  its  own  impartiality. 

The  body-servant  of  Stonewall  Jackson,  issuing 
sometimes  from  his  master's  tent,  would  confide  to 
others  his  opinion  that  there  would  be  something 
to  pay  soon,  —  an  unmentionable  locality  would  be  to 
pay,  —  "  Massa  Jackson  had  such  a  drefiul  fit  o'  pray- 
in'."  Misguided  earnestness  can  concentrate  its  plans 
and  temper  by  the  act  of  prayer.  Jackson  fought  the 
battle  of  the  next  day  upon  his  knees,  because  it  is  an 
involuntary  gesture  made  by  every  strong  mind  that 
heaps  itself  up  towards  the  future  enterprise.  Some- 
thing w^as  to  pay  at  Cedar  Mountain  :  was  it  because 
Jackson  prayed,  or  because  Banks  blundered.'^  or  will 
you  create  an  escape  from  this  dilemma  by  maintain- 
ing that  Banks  blundered  because  Jackson  prayed  } 

Q* 


203  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

The  prayers  of  an  earnest  man  like  Stonewall  Jack- 
son are  only  signals  to  the  neighborhood  that  his 
plans  are  good,  his  temper  high,  his  whole  soul  eager 
to  test  its  combination,  and  that  nothing  can  be  ex- 
jjected  of  heaven  unless  to-morrow's  devotion  brings 
it.  To-morrow  is  already  mortgaged  to  the  devotion  ; 
the  prayer  is  nothing  but  the  deed  that  is  signed  and 
sealed.  At  the  very  moment  when  the  stern  Crom- 
wclls  of  history  break  into  prayer,  it  is  a  hint  that 
praying  has  become  superfluous.  The  purpose  is  at 
white-heat,  and  heaven  can  add  nothing  to  it ;  for  to- 
morrow's opportunity  is  already  on  the  ground  and 
came  there  by  the  usual  conveyances.  It  is  worth  all 
such  praying  to  see  that  the  good  or  evil  occasion  has 
come.  Both  sides  will  pray,  but  the  toughest  temper 
wins.  Each  side  will  try  to  stimulate  itself  by  ac(s 
of  devotion ;  but  heaven  makes  a  tour  of  inspection, 
and  discovers  whose  powder  is  the  driest.  Perhaps  wet 
powder  will  be  suddenly  kiln-dried  by  desperate  cir- 
cumstances in  mid-tide  of  battle.  Providence  endowed 
desperation  with  this  talent  long  before  it  took  to 
devoutness,  and  has  left  at  Marathon  and  elsewhere 
the  texts  of  its  primeval  purpose.  All  parties  are 
quite  convinced  that  there  is  a  Lord  of  Hosts,  and 
make  no  scruples  to  approach  him  with  what  they 
have  in  hand  or  heart ;  but  he  is  an  unbribable  director 
of  quality  by  the  smooth  curve  of  David's  sling,  and 
lays  bulk  prostrate. 

Critical  moments  give  men  opportunity  to  notice 
that  heaven  has  made  provision  that  goodness  shall 
always  exceed  evil  by  a  certain  per  cent.  It  needs 
only  to  be  hard  pressed  to  discover  this  latent  quality 


FALSE    AND    TRUE    PRAYING.  203 

that  secures  the  final  superiority  to  heaven,  and  makes 
the  world  possible,  without  exacting  a  single  phrase 
from  man.  Both  good  and  evil  indulge  copiously  in 
phrases  which  claim  the  God  of  battles,  before  an  en- 
counter, and  reward  him  with  Te  Deicms  after.  But 
God  sings  his  own  anthem  in  the  event,  however  pro- 
tracted through  various  fortunes  of  the  fighters,  all  of 
whom  serve  him  to  a  turn  ;  and  whether  they  suppli- 
cate or  imprecate,  it  must  be  all  one  to  a  power  who 
depends  upon  putting  goodness  into  straits,  and  dotes 
upon  it  that  he  may  see  it  harassed  into  the  superior- 
ity that  throws  at  last  the  doubles  of  victory. 

What  a  fine  disdain  there  must  be  in  heaven  for  all 
the  prayers  that  undertake  to  coax  laws  and  qualities 
into  events  !  Jefferson  Davis  had  recourse  to  appoint- 
ing days  of  humiliation,  because  men  who  prayed  as 
well  as  they  fought,  and  women  who  w^ept  tears  as 
salt  as  any  that  channelled  the  New  England  bloom, 
could  not  win  the  final  per  cent ;  for  that  had  been 
previously  settled  on  the  Rights  of  Man,  before  a  shot 
was  heard,  or  a  single  aspiration  struggled  through 
the  powder-cloud  of  war.  And  the  North  appointed 
Fasts,  that  all  the  clergymen  might  entreat  heaven  to 
reflect  if  Bull-Runs  and  Ball's  Bluffs  were  not  mis- 
takes, and  to  hurry  up  advantages  in  consideration  of 
the  phrase  that  we  were  miserable  sinners.  So  we 
were,  and  had  been  through  thirty  years  of  compro- 
mising, all  of  which  had  been  clerically  bespoken,  and 
came  to  pass  to  the  inward  satisfaction  of  believers  in 
supplication.  So  we  were,  guilty  as  the  South,  to 
such  an  extent  that  we  must  perceive  how  reconstruc- 
tion blossoms  from  the  feculence  of  both  parties,  and 


204  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

independently  of  the  prayers  of  either.  Both  the 
North  and  South  had  been  educated  to  believe  that 
events  depended  practically  to  some  extent  upon  en- 
treaties. So  were  the  Catholics  and  Huguenots  of 
France.  We  should  say  that  the  patriotism  of  the 
Huguenot  lifted  to  heaven  prayers  after  its  own  heart, 
and  that  they  deserved  to  earn  eventual  supremacy  for 
religious  liberty.  We  can  even  venture  to  speculate 
that  if  the  precious  blood  of  St.  Bartholomew  had 
won  the  cast,  Robespierre  and  Danton  would  not 
have  been  tormented  with  the  thirst  for  more.  But 
one  would  say  now  that  heaven  only  had  the  object 
to  scatter  the  fine  quality  of  the  Huguenot  through 
every  land.  He  became  a  slaveholder  in  South  Caro- 
lina, and  prayed  with  as  much  faith  and  smouldering 
earnestness  as  ever.  But  he  lost  his  case,  —  in  France 
where  he  deserved  it,  in  America  where  he  did  not. 
Freedom  has  an  architect  who  never  mistakes  human 
breath  for  blocks  of  marble.  Say  what  we  will, 
Catholicism  must  have  had  a  quality  as  well  as  a 
majority :  otherwise  David's  stone  would  have  gone 
again  crashing  through  Goliah's  forehead.  Is  heaven 
sometimes  flattered  by  High  Mass,  and  sometimes  by 
extemporaneous  entreaty?  Mankind  is  drawn  upon 
the  track  of  a  long-headed  purpose,  transacts  business 
of  joy  and  sorrow  at  every  station,  and  its  energizing 
into  phrases  can  neither  check  the  train  nor  put  fuel 
underneath  its  motive  power.  Conscience  is  on  board  ; 
intelligence  is  the  meal  furnished  at  all  the  stopping 
places,  where  wells  are  dug  and  wood  is  hewn  to 
exhale  into  genuine  momentum  for  this  journey  out  of 
fatalism  into  freedom. 


FALSE    AND    TRUE    PRAYING.  20^ 

If  we  can  rid  our  religious  feelinof  of  this  old  claim 
that  the  drift  of  history,  the  accidents  of  life,  the  for- 
tunes of  the  individual  cannot  depend  upon  laws  of 
nature  unless  they  are  supplemented  by  our  devotions, 
we  can  stand  in  a  clear  place,  with  so  much  rubbish 
that  interrupted  the  view  piled  on  either  hand.  As 
soon  as  we  are  thus  disencumbered,  we  move  freel3'^ 
to  and  fro  with  this  question  :  How  is  it  then  that  we 
cannot  help  praying?  Of  all  our  instincts  is  this  the 
only  one  that  turns  into  a  vagabond,  without  a  legal 
permit  to  beg,  left  to  forage  on  the  unsuspecting 
neighbors?  What  account  is  to  be  given  of  the  uni- 
versal tendency  of  man  to  pile  up  all  his  preferences 
or  his  antipathies  till  they  stand  level  with  a  threshold 
over  which  words  may  carry  them  Into  the  divine 
consideration?  Is  this  done  because  otherwise  we 
cannot  arrive  there,  and  cannot  get  commended  to  a 
power  that  serves  us?  Though  God  knows  what  we 
have  need  of  before  we  ask  him,  must  we  still  ask, 
because  his  knowledge  will  not  move  towards  us  on 
any  other  terms?  We  have  freed  our  deck  of  the 
litter  of  notions  that  partiality  for  special  providences 
scattered  over  it :  as  we  float  off'the  bar  can  we  swing 
round  into  confidence  that  moral  and  spiritual  gifts 
depend  upon  the  asking?  Or  if  they  do  not,  whither 
are  we  sailing  with  this  Instinct  after  God,  that  Is  the 
compass  on  the  wide  waste,  this  ardor  that  streams 
from  every  mast  and  spar,  these  moments  that  fill  with 
sudden  breezes,  we  know  not  whence,  and  put  under- 
neath us  the  rapture  of  motion,  and  draw  every  shred 
of  us  taut  into  a  silence  which  declares  that  we  career  ! 

And  what  is  to  be  said   to  the  discovery  that  every 


2o6  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

kind  of  misguided  moral  sense  shares  the  same  rap- 
tures, and  strains  towards  the  same  harbor,  —  the 
possession  of  God ;  that  a  passion  of  entreaty  has 
ennobled  all  lost  causes  which  have  drawn  the  blood 
and  tears  of  men  ;  that  every  zone  exhales  in  fervid 
preferences  which  Buddha,  Allah,  Jehovah,  Jove  or 
Lord  are  supposed  to  respect  and  gratify?  Perhaps 
this  discovery  of  a  universal  instinct  is  just  what  we 
need  to  make  before  we  can  interpret  it. 

H.  W.  Beecher,  in  a  Lecture-Room  Talk  upon 
prayer,  asks,  "  Ought  we  not  to  pray  for  direct  spiritual 
gifts?  "  —  and  answers  thus  :  "  Yes,  I  think  we  ought ; 
but  I  think  that  whenever  a  man  asks  God  for  any 
spiritual  gift,  the  next  step  should  be  to  ask,  '  Have  I 
not  asked  God  for  something  that  I  can  get  myself  ? 
Have  I  not  asked  God  for  something  that  he  has  made 
provision  to  give  me  in  an  indirect  way?'" 

This  may  be  good  vestry-room  logic,  to  hold  a  con- 
fiding audience  together,  but  it  vanishes  in  a  well- 
ventilated  space.  If  there  be  something  that  a  man 
can  get  for  himself,  his  first  step  should  be  not  to  ask 
any  thing  in  heaven  or  earth  to  give  it  to  him.  His 
next  step  should  be  to  procure  it.  "  As  the  plough 
follows  words,  so  God  rewards  prayers."  This  prov. 
erb  of  William  Blake  reminds  us  of  Hesiod's  direc- 
tion to  the  farmer  to  pray  to  Jove  and  Ceres,  but  with 
his  hand  upon  the  plough-tail. 

Is  there  no  point,  then,  pursijes  Mr.  Beecher,  where 
God,  finding  that  something  is  inaccessible  to  a  man 
by  the  natural  laws  of  his  constitution,  will  intervene, 
and  give  it  to  him  in  a  special  manner?  Yes:  he 
tliinks  there   is.     He   can  understand  how  Peter,   for 


FALSE    AND    TRUE    PRAYING.  20^ 

want  of  a  pass-key,  should  require  an  angel  to  let  him 
out  of  prison  :  and  how,  when  Paul  and  Silas  were 
praying  in  prison,  with  no  files  and  saws  by  which  to 
effect  an  escape,  a  lively  earthquake  should  be  detailed 
to  shake  open  the  doors  and  set  them  free.  So  Mr. 
Beecher  pulls  the  string  of  the  Llamaite  cylinder  to 
summon  a  conventional  deity.  If  something  be  inac- 
cessible to  a  man  by  the  laws  of  his  natural  constitu- 
tion, what  is  it  but  a  divine  decree  that  it  should 
continue  to  be  so  .^  But  if  a  man's  nature  breaks  into 
prayer,  that  is  the  instinctive  response  of  all  its  gifts 
toward  the  infinite  giving. 

Let  us  drop  illustration  into  the  depth  of  this  sub- 
ject, that  perhaps  some  draught  of  it  may  be  lifted  to 
the  lip.  Through  flat  and  unprofitable  moments,  a 
poet  is  waiting  for  the  next  consent  of  his  imagination. 
The  bed  of  every  gift,  that  lately  sparkled  or  thun- 
dered as  the  freshet  of  the  hills  sent  its  surprises  down, 
lies  empty,  waiting  for  the  master  passion  to  open  the 
sluice  when  it  hears  the  steps  of  coming  waves.  The 
poet's  nature  strains  against  the  dumb  gates  of  his 
body  and  his  mood.  With  power  and  longing  he 
heaves  them  open,  and  is  brimfuU  again  with  the 
rhythm  that  collects  from  the  whole  face  of  Nature  : 
the  hill-side,  the  ravine,  the  drifting  cloud,  the  vapors 
just  arrived  from  ocean,  the  drops  that  flowers  nod 
with  to  flavor  the  stream,  the  human  smiles  that  col- 
onize both  banks  of  it,  —  all  passions,  all  delights  hurry 
to  possess  his  thought,  crowd  into  the  precincts  of  his 
person,  pain  him  with  the  tumult  in  which  they  offer 
him  obedience,  remind  him  of  his  last  joy  in  their 
companionship,  and  will  not  let  him  go  till  he  ennobles 


2o8  AMERICAN    RELIGION". 

them  bv  bursting  into  expression.  Relief  flows  down 
with  every  perfect  word  :  the  congested  soul  bleeds 
into  the  lyric  and  the  canto  ;  the  poet's  burden  be- 
comes light-hearted  ;  and  the  supreme  moment  of  his 
travail,  when  it  breaks  in  showers  of  his  emotion, 
cools  and  comforts  him.  He  must  die  or  express  him- 
self. All  the  blood  in  the  earth's  arteries  is  running 
through  his  heart;  all  the  stars  in  the  sky  are  set  in_^ 
his  brain's  dome :  this  life  and  light  must  be  dis- 
charged into  a  word,  and  the  poet  restored  to  health 
and  peace  again.  Goethe  used  to  say  that  when  his 
imagination  accumulated  thus,  as  it  was  fed  by  near 
sug-gfestions  of  his  own  life,  or  from  the  head-waters  of 
thought,  he  was  nothing  but  disquiet,  till  it  slipped 
away  through  every  line  he  wrote,  and  gave  him  an 
answer  of  serenity.  He  might  mistake  it  for  a  touch 
of  the  infinite  satisfaction.  It  was  the  olive-branch 
brought  home  to  him  from  the  subsiding  turbulence 
of  his  emotion  that  covered  the  tops  of  every  gift,  and 
had  to  cut  a  channel  to  release  him. 

This  mental  gesture  has  in  it  the  essential  quality  of 
praying.  The  poet  asks  for  nothing,  but  receives  the 
gratification  of  a  nature  already  framed  to  be  sated 
and  soothed  when  its  gifts  toil  up  into  a  clear  place. 
Cortez  and  his  men,  possessed  and  heated  by  a  wild 
surmise,  hewed  tlieir  way  through  the  dense  chappo- 
ral,  till  a  whole  Pacific  lay  in  the  orbit  of  their  eyes. 
Enterprising  manhood  carries  along  its  own  answer 
into  every  entreaty  of  its  powers  to  be  developed  and 
to  reach  their  highest  pitch.  And  when  a  man  voices 
the  mood  of  tenderness,  of  confidence,  of  expectation 
Hud  of  gladness  that  has  risen  within  him,  and  breaks 


FALSE    AND    TRUE    PRAYING.  209 

into  God's  open  air  with  caressing  epithets,  his  mood 
reaches  its  answer  in  its  own  climax,  and  he  is  satis- 
fied that  God  has  given  him  just  what  he  has 
earned. 

It  cannot  be  different  with  the  moods  that  culminate 
into  regret  and  confession  of  a  maimed,  unfaithful  life. 
They  rush  into  consciousness,  and  see  themselves ; 
the  act  of  launching  an  entreaty  floats  them  into  the 
salutary  bitterness  of  being  broad  awake,  thoroughly 
live  and  aware.  A  man  has  been  so  organized  that 
all  his  moods,  in  which  his  average  character  finds 
their  poetic  expression,  shall  discharge  themselves  into 
a  calmness  that  benefits  him,  because  it  was  reached 
through  the  personal  disquiet  which  breaks  up  his 
illusions.  The  sight  of  himself  is  a  preordained 
opportunity  for  amendment.  These  answers  to  prayer 
lie  latent  in  the  constitution,  where  God  patiently 
awaits  their  germinating,  confident  that  he  need  inter- 
fere no  more  than  he  does  when  the  lyric  soars,  the 
tragedy  weeps  and  terrifies,  the  symphony  mourns 
towards  its  own  deliverance,  the  picture  flings  its 
beauties  on  the  wall.  His  inspiration  is  previous  and 
constant :  not  subsequently  recruited  to  the  pitch  of 
an  entreaty.  Why  should  it  be,  if  we  are  so  framed 
that  a  feeling  cannot  be  profound  that  does  not  an- 
nounce itself  ?  A  man  may  think  he  is  the  master  of 
a  speculation,  or  that  some  province  of  knowledge  is 
familiar  to  him.  But  every  thing  lies  in  the  condition 
of  a  nebula,  till  its  own  stress  lends  motion  to  it,  when 
he  can  organize  in  the  symmetry  of  expression  what  he 
thinks  he  owns.  Not  till  that  moment  does  he  own  it. 
Not  till  then  does  it  reward  him  with  its  organic  satis- 


2IO  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

faction.  So,  difficult  problems  over  which  our  gifts 
brood  and  starve  with  waiting  are  no  progeny  of 
ours  till  they  chip  the  shell  and  run  warm  into  our 
content.  When  Kepler's  soul  wrestled  with  planet 
after  planet  in  the  midnight,  and  threw  them  on  the 
floor  of  that  silence  where  they  lifted  visor  and  con- 
fessed to  him  the  law  of  their  distances  from  each 
other,  his  tumult  of  possession,  his  hour  of  acceding 
to  the  throne  of  that  idea,  broke  into  the  exclamation, 
"  I  think  thy  thoughts  after  thee,  O  God  !  "  Devout- 
ness  is  the  announcement  that  every  success  makes  of 
its  superiority  to  prayer.  It  has  thought  heaven's 
thoughts,  and  felt  its  emotions,  before  it  can  grow  bold 
and  hot  enough  to  importune.  "  God  allows  us  the 
epithet  only  after  the  fact." 

The  same  organic  felicity  rises  higher  than  smiles, 
and  unlocks  from  either  eye  the  torrent  that  cuts  the 
smiles  up  and  denudes  their  surfaces.  We  cast  our- 
selv^es  by  the  side  of  the  children  of  our  hope,  or  the 
comrades  of  our  friendsl;iip,  and  weep  each  access  of 
our  sense  of  bereavement  away  into  the  quiet  that 
follows  exhausted  emotion.  Sweetness  mingles  with 
the  equipoise  which  the  nature  purchases  at  this  dear 
rate.  If  our  despair  has  besieged  heaven  with  a  claim 
to  be  understood  and  comforted,  its  climax  subsides 
into  its  answer,  till  time  brings  the  perfect  consolation 
of  a  scarcity  of  tears.  We  have  thrown  ourselves 
upon  the  bosom  of  expression ;  long  repressed  feel- 
ings have  sobbed  themselves  to  sleep  with  their  arms 
around  a  recollection,  and  a  dream  that  reality  is  still 
possessed  plays  upon  the  quiet  face.  Reality  is  as 
distant  from   us  as   the    antipodes :  but  a  tide  reaches 


FALSE  AND  TRUE  PRAYING.  21 T 

our  eyelid,  propelled  from  that  distance,  and  lifts  it 
open  and  drips  there  till  thickening  siniles  absorb  it. 
God's  answer  is  already  in  the  love  that  refuses  to  be 
comforted  till  it  has  been  cloyed  with  its  own  em- 
phasis. 

Human  expression  varies,  but  the  law  remains  the 
same.  Heaven  is  no  more  attracted  into  compassion 
by  the  symbol  of  scarifying  the  flesh  and  maiming 
the  limbs,  by  the  howls  and  rages  of  the  Syrian  or 
Celtic  temper,  than  by  the  suppressed  composure  of 
the  Qiiaker,  whose  face  may  be  as  impassive  as  a 
grave,  but  whose  dead  lies  buried  in  it.  The  formulas 
of  agony  feed  upon  the  flora  of  every  meridian,  and 
draw  their  color  from  the  leaf;  so  that  the  Esqui- 
maux derives  from  his  sensations  an  answer  different 
from  the  Polynesian  in  the  terms  of  its  comfort :  but 
the  real  response  is  in  the  expressiveness  which  ex- 
hausts the  individual  grief,  and  is  as  heavenly  in  the 
howl  of  a  Fijian  as  in  the  fnisei^ere  of  the  Sistine 
Chapel,  or  the  Christian's  claim  that  the  Comforter 
shall  speedily  arrive.  It  arrives,  and  has  never  yet 
shown  an  imperfect  knowledge  of  geography,  and  is 
in  a  ratio  to  the  population  as  direct  as  the  deaths 
are.  I  know  some  cases  wh-ere  it  does  not  seem  to 
arrive  :  but  it  is  not  for  want  of  prayer.  Rachel  is  a 
constitutional  temper  that  refuses  to  be  comforted. 

It  must  be  that  a  divine  mind  foresaw  to  make 
human  nature  adequate,  on  the  whole,  to  every  emer- 
gency, so  that  the  surprises  of  sorrow  should  only  lib- 
erate from  their  own  bitterness  a  tonic  to  rectify  the 
disorder  which  they  introduce  :  as  Mithridates  had  so 
inoculated  his  system  with  little  doses  of  poison,  that 


212  ;iMERICAN    RELIGION. 

whatever  kind  was  secretly  administered  became  its 
own  antidote  as  soon  as  swallowed. 

In  South  America,  there  is  a  tribe  of  Araucan 
Indians,  who  maintain,  says  Mr.  Helps,  that  prayer  is 
needless,  because  their  gods  are  so  beneficent  that  they 
are  sure  to  confer  upon  men  all  things  that  it  is  good 
for  them  to  have.  Nevertheless  the  Araucans  show 
their  gratitude  for  this  goodness  by  humble  oflerings. 
This  tribe,  which  was  never  subdued  and  brought  under 
the  control  of  the  white  man,  yields  to  the  true  phil- 
osophy that  justifies  the  universal  instinct.  Prayer  is 
the  gratitude  of  every  gift,  and  also  its  cogency.  Gifts 
excite  feelings  of  hope,  veneration,  dependence,  grati- 
tude, and  the  whole  instinct  rises  Godward.  If  we  keep 
out  the  notion  of  affecting  God,  how  beautiful  and 
natural  is  the  whole  movement  of  a  man  to  establish  a 
sincere  friendship  with  the  Mind  who  framed  his  gifts. 
When  it  is  entirely  disinterested,  without  any  reserva- 
tion of  expecting  to  alter  one  divine  intention,  because 
it  knows  beforehand  that  such  intentions,  of  divine 
necessity,  must  always  be  the  best  whether  we  are  on 
friendly  terms  with  God  or  not,  then  how  ennobling 
becomes  this  spontaneous  proffer  of  our  best  things  ! 
This  unaffected  homage  puts  us  on  a  friendly  footing 
with  the  whole  of  Nature,  and  God's  perfect  purpose 
in  all  things  includes  us  too :  we  offer  incense  as 
frankly  as  the  fields,  with  no  more  afterthought,  nor 
pretence  of  a  claim  beyond  the  gift  of  growing  and 
producing.  So  that  the  Creator  inhales  at  the  same 
moment  his  flowers,  and  the  gladness  which  they 
propagate  when  their  pollen  strays  into  human  hearts. 
As  tlic  world   is  continually  oftering  up  its  beauty  and 


FALSE    AND    TRUE    PRAYING.  213 

its  use,  and  God,  seeing  that  it  is  good,  takes  satisfac- 
tion in  His  work,  so  mankind  may  exhale  in  the 
prayers  of  natural  desire  :  these  rise  up,  the  unforced 
tribute  of  things  that  reach  the  felicity  of  fragrance. 
And  the  rose  is  content  with  its  own  :  it  has  no  hanker- 
ing to  smell  like  a  lily,  nor  to  make  its  own  scent  more 
penetrating ;  it  vanishes  heavenward  through  the 
delight  which  it  generates  in  us,  and  God  knows 
flowers  by  that  means.  We  have  a  right  to  think 
that  he  takes  satisfaction  in  this  reflex  action  of  the 
nature  he  has  made.  The  "  golden  vials,  full  of 
odors,  which  are  the  prayers  of  the  saints,"  are  the 
delights  of  our  own  symmetry ;  they  cannot  bear  to 
be  enjoyed  alone  :  they  rush  to  some  companion  to 
declare  this  discovery  of  something  that  is  majestic, 
comely,  or  tender ;  they  say,  "  Share  me  —  let  a 
friend's  bosom  feel  the  heart  leap  ;  'tis  only  half  a 
rapture  till  it  is  all  gone,  all  emptied  into  thy  beauty 
and  holiness,  thou  friend  of  my  gladness  and  partner 
of  my  existence  !  See,  I  decant  my  heart  into  thy 
hand  —  how  precious  it  lies  there  in  the  place  that 
framed  it ;  the  nest  has  not  grown  cold."  When  I  am 
best,  I  must  drive  home  and  let  my  ecstasy  rush  over 
the  threshold  into  all  the  kindred  arms,  without  a  self- 
ish thought  —  not  even  to  claim  shelter  :  least  of  all,  to 
beg  for  food  when  I  am  full  already,  and  that  is  the 
reason  why  I  have  arrived. 

But  when  we  say  that  God's  sympathy  with  the 
jubilee  or  discontent  of  man's  desires  sets  him  to 
limit,  to  affect  or  modify  his  purposes,  to  correct  what 
he  is  persuaded  by  the  remarks  we  make  to  him  must 
have  been  wrong,  —  in    short,  to  supplement  what  is 


314  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

already  perfectly  contrived,  and  to  receive  as  advice 
the  prayers  which  nothing  but  that  perfection  ever 
could  have  suggested,  we  turn  the  relation  between 
the  finite  and  infinite  into  dickering.  The  Guinea 
traders  advance  towards  a  group  of  natives,  lay  down 
their  heap  of  trinkets  and  merchandize,  and  then 
retire :  the  natives  advance,  and  put  opposite  to  it  a 
heap  which  they  esteem  equivalent.  If  the  trader's 
estimate  is  the  same,  the  exchange  is  made  :  otherwise 
the  heaps  are  modified  till  the  balance  is  reached. 
"How  will  you  swap?"  says  man:  "wilt  thou  be 
pleased  to  approach  and  examine  my  heap,  glittering 
with  gems  or  tears?"  Heaven  approaches  to  say: 
"Your  heap  was  grown  on  my  soil  —  I  have  nothing 
better  to  offer — will  you  bring  spices  to  the  tropics? 
I  recognize  them,  and  proffer  the  greeting  of  their 
own  nature." 

A  father  and  mother  love  the  tender  homasfe  of 
their  children's  feelings,  but  still  ordain  what  is  best, 
because  they  perceive  what  imperfectness  there  would 
be  in  yielding  to  ill-considered  desires,  however  eager, 
and  winged  with  filial  impetuosity.  There  is  satis- 
faction when  the  desires  harmonize  with  the  parental 
intent ;  but  when  they  do  not  there  is  a  serene  regard 
that  is  not  affected  by  this  state  of  filial  unresponsive- 
ness. The  well-considered  desire  is  but  the  reflection 
of  the  well-premeditated  purpose,  whether  it  be  for 
evident  good  or  seeming  evil.  There  is  no  praying 
possible  to  a  man  until  he  becomes  aofain  enough  of  a 
child  not  to  calculate  his  raptures  and  not  to  crave  an 
equivalent.  As  the  child  meets  nobly  the  eyes  of  his 
father,   in  which   many  winters  have    garnered   their 


FALSE    AND    TRUE    PRAYING.  315 

sorrows,  many  summers  have  expressed  their  fruit,  so 
the  simple-minded  man  can  exchange  glances  with 
the  God  who  is  quartered  on  his  dwelling,  and  return 
smile  for  smile. 

How  often  we  lift  ourselves  heavenward  with 
almost  a  perfect  and  a  pure  desire,  and  almost  find 
ourselves  standing  on  that  sky-line  which  our  highest 
earth  projects.  But  there  is  some  indefinite  sense  of 
being  not  yet  quite  in  earnest,  that  is  to  say,  not  yet 
well  grown.  We  have  not  fearlessly  cut  all  the  cords 
and  let  the  gifts  all  loose.  We  almost  reach,  but 
there  is  still  somewhere  an  anchor  in  the  depth  that 
forbids  us  to  swing  into  perfect  freedom.  We  linger 
painfully  with  our  real  self  not  yet  entirely  buoyant 
within  us.  Are  we  ready  to  cut  loose  for  ever,  and 
trust  ourselves  up  through  that  unexplored  depth? 
How  it  tempts  and  draws  us,  but  how  a  single  anchor 
holds  us  moored  !  Just  when  we  think  that  our  desire 
is  whole-souled  enough  to  carry  us  away  to  hear 
heaven  say,  Tes^  because  we  say  it,  a  dull  conscious- 
ness of  flesh  comes  creeping  up  and  clinging ;  we 
settle  back  into  immaturity.  Perfect  prayers  without 
a  spot  or  blemish,  though  not  one  word  be  spoken, 
and  no  phrases  known  to  mankind  be  tampered  with, 
always  pluck  the  heart  out  of  the  earth,  and  move 
it  softly,  like  a  censer,  to  and  fro  beneath  the  face  of 
heaven. 

But  what  is  the  use  of  this  natural  desiring?  Set 
aside  the  conventional  prayers,  mere  useless  gesticu- 
lating and  cerebral  trickery,  the  bales  of  rhetoric 
which  the  churches  dispatch  to  a  country  altogether 
foreign  ;  put  aside  every  mannerism   that  denies  the 


2i6  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

perfect  order  of  the  physical  and  moral  world,  the 
perfect  prescience  of  that  order,  and  that  the  best 
thing  must  at  any  rate  always  happen,  with  or  with- 
out human  desiring,  —  what  is  the  use  of  letting  all  the 
gifts  run  into  this  conspiracy  of  feeling,  to  gather  with 
sword-clashing  and  acclaim  around  a  door  where  the 
invisible  is  listening?  There  is  no  use  at  all,  on  the 
old  theory  that  we  can  transact  business  with  God, 
chaffer  with  him,  beat  him  down,  work  upon  his 
feelings.  We  can  get  a  salad  without  growing  it,  just 
for  the  asking,  as  soon  as  we  can  get  sanctities.  Mr. 
Beecher  well  says  that  "  prayer  is  often  an  argument 
of  laziness.  A  person  finds  that  his  temper  is  a  source 
of  great  trouble  to  him,  so  he  says :  '  Lord,  my  tem- 
per gives  me  a  vast  deal  of  inconvenience,  and  it 
would  not  be  so  great  a  task  for  you  to  correct  it  as 
for  me.  Will  you  please  take  it  in  hand  through  the 
influences  of  your  Holy  Spirit? '  "  He  that  sitteth  in  the 
heavens  shall  laugh.  "  Do  as  I  do  ;  grow  your  own 
salads,  ;n  the  sweat  of  your  brow,  and  your  own  sanc- 
tities in  the  blood  of  your  heart."  There  is  not  a 
crevice  along  the  line  of  this  decree  of  labor,  where 
a  man  may  pry  with  his  pickaxe  of  begging. 

What  is  the  use,  then,  of  natural  desiring?  That 
is  not  the  real  question  which  the  universal  instinct 
suggests  to  us.  This  is  the  question :  How  can 
you  help  having  the  prayers  of  natural  and  sponta- 
neous feeling?  Not  a  word  need  pass.  Suppose 
earnestness  docs  not  fall  on  its  knees  and  break  into 
speech :  if  there  be  real  earnestness,  that  is  the 
prayer,  because  it  is  the  sincere  human  endeavor  to 
fulfil  a  gift,  a  task,  a  purpose,  an  inspiration.     It  is  a 


FALSE    AND    TRUE    PRAYING.  21 7 

religious  tendency  of  the  finite  towards  the  infinite, 
since  it  is  by  human  earnestness  that  the  work  of  God 
goes  on. 

When  a  boy  first  sees  the  ocean  at  its  orgy  among 
the  shore-rocks,  he  careers  more  lustily  than  the  whole 
deep,  more  mobile  than  its  waves,  and  shouts  his 
irrepressible  sympathy  with  freedom.  The  sea  waited 
to  be  well  fitted  with  that  voice.  It  is  ascription  of 
praise  even  if  the  boy  bandys  school-yard  vernacular 
with  the  solemn  sky.  When  perfect  music  drives  its 
golden  scythe-chariot  up  the  fine  nerves,  across  the 
bridge  of  association,  through  the  stern  portcullis  of 
care,  and  alights  in  the  heart  of  a  man,  there  is  ado- 
ration, whether  he  faints  with  excess  of  recognition 
of  one  long  absent,  and  lies  prostrate  in  the  arms 
of  rhythm,  feeling  that  he  is  not  worthy  it  should 
come  under  his  roof,  or  whether  he  mounts  the  seat 
and  grasps  the  thrilling  reins  ;  God's  unity  is  riding 
through  his  distraction,  brought  by  tliat  team  of  all 
the  instruments  which  shake  their  manes  across  the 
pavement  of  his  bosom,  and  strike  out  the  sparks  of 
longing.  He  cannot  help  knowing  that  his  visitor 
anticipates  a  harmony  to  which  he  has  not  yet  attained. 
No  matter  whether  he  calls  it  perfect  Beauty  or  per- 
fect God,  whether  it  prostrates  or  enraptures  him  ; 
his  soul  cannot  avoid  making  some  gesture  ;  it  is  con- 
sent to  heaven,  and  a  declaration  of  love. 

It  is  not  different  with  any  moment  when  our  powers 
are  heaped  up  towards  some  attraction.  Shall  the 
waters  which  follow  the  moon  protest,  "  What  is  the 
use  of  this?"  Their  movement  declares,  "We  cannot 
help  it."     The  name  of  God,  and  a  flash  of  recogni- 

10 


21 8  amIrican  religion. 

tion  that  passes  between  earth  and  heaven,  sums  up 
our  sincerit>',  whether  it  reaches  freedom  in  arts, 
service,  suffering,  or  simple  natural  joy.  In  Mrs. 
Gaskell's  novel  of  "  Mary  Barton,"  Job  Legh  says : 
"  It's  not  often  I  pray  regular,  though  I  often  speak  a 
word  to  God,  when  I'm  either  very  happy  or  very 
sorry.  I've  catched  myself  thanking  him  at  odd  hours, 
when  I've  found  a  rare  insect,  or  had  a  fine  day  for 
an  out :  but  I  cannot  help  it,  no  more  than  I  can  talk- 
ing to  a  friend."  And  Jean  Paul  Richter,  waking 
from  a  hideous  dream,  in  the  sun  and  air  of  a  genial 
morning,  says :  "  My  soul  wept  for  joy  that  I  could 
still  pray  to  God  ;  and  the  joy  and  the  weeping  and 
the  faith  on  him  were  my  prayer."  He  had  nothing 
to  ask  for,  but  every  thing  to  bestow.  What  is  the 
use  of  it?  What  is  the  use  of  thirds  or  fifths  in  har- 
mony? The  vibrations  do  not  undertake  to  have 
commercial  intercourse  ;  their  mutual  benefit  is  in  the 
law  of  their  affinity,  and  the  air  breathes  the  marriage 
that  consoles  a  world. 

The  young  prince  gets  into  a  castle  which  he  does 
not  know  belongs  to  him  already  by  the  foreordination 
of  love.  Having  but  one  search  to  make,  and  the 
search  itself  being  the  entreaty  he  has  to  frame,  he 
passes  through  the  mercenary  groups ;  scullions  may 
work  for  wages,  and  remain  always  scullions ;  the 
men-at-arms  for  booty  ;  the  chaplain  coins  his  prayers 
into  board  and  lodging,  even  Gold-Stick  in  Waiting  is 
not  inaccessible  to  bribes.  Everybody  recommends 
his  knack,  prays  for  it,  craves  consideration  of  the 
supreme  Beaut3\  But  the  youth  has  mounted  at 
length  past  all  these  landing-places,  a  suitor  accepted 


FALSE    AND    TRUE    PRAYING.  219 

before  he  reaches  the  chamber  of  avowal,  where  he 
wakes  the  blandishment  which  is  the  counterpart  of 
his  enterprise. 

So  when  the  instinct  of  human  life  strugforles  ob- 
scurely  upward  to  its  various  achievements,  it  takes 
divine  nature  along  with  it,  comes  into  the  light,  sees 
its  face,  and  says,  "  Is  it  thou,  my  God?  " 


IX. 

STRIFE  AND   SYMMETRY. 

MR.  Darwin's  theory  that  all  the  varieties  of  ani- 
mal and  vegetable  life  have  been  due  to  some 
principle  of  natural  selection,  working  by  means  of  a 
struggle  to  maintain  life,  has  lately  been  reenforced 
by  him  with  a  theory  that  every  line  of  inheritance  is 
endowed  with  indestructible  germs,  some  of  which 
lie  latent  while  others  become  expressed  in  character, 
but  all  of  them  are  liable  to  come  to  the  surface  and- 
announce  themselves.  A  human  family  is  a  vehicle 
for  these  atoms,  which  assert  themselves  or  retire  into 
privacy  as  time  goes  on  ;  so  that  each  generation  not 
only  inherits  directly  from  the  one  preceding  it,  but  is 
likely  to  reproduce  some  long  forgotten  traits  of  an- 
cestors, even  to  peculiarities  of  birth-mark,  features 
and  complexions. 

This  recurrence  of  family  marks  has  been  noticed 
from  the  earliest  times.  Plutarch  mentions  them  in 
an  essay  of  his  Morals,  and  relates  a  contemporaneous 
case  of  the  youngest  son  of  a  certain  Pytho,  of  an 
ancient  Spartan  line,  who  was  born  with  the  mark  of 
a  spear  upon  his  body,  which  was  the  family  mark, 
but  had  not  reappeared   for   several    generations ;    it 


STRIFE    AND    SYMMETRY.  '  231 

came  at  length,  as  if  to  guarantee  purity  of  descent. 
So,  says  Plutarch,  early  generations  of  a  family  may 
keep  latent  some  qualities  and  affections,  or  hold 
them  slurred,  which  afterwards  break  forth  and  dis- 
play the  natural  tendency  to  some  vice  or  virtue. 
This  is  Nature's  entail.  She  brings  a  child  into  an 
old  gallery  of  family  portraits  and  startles  it  with  its 
own  identity  upon  the  wall,  of  some  one  who  is 
reputed  to  be  dead  and  buried  for  a  hundred  years, 
but  who  acquires  in  this  child  a  fresh  lease  of  exist- 
ence. This  occurs  because  the  family  germs  are  car- 
ried along  by  all  the  members,  and  propagated  for 
years  in  silence  and  oblivion  to  bide  their  time.  Vices 
and  virtues  thus  leap  to  the  face  and  into  action,  by 
this  law  of  their  own,  and  the  individual  is  already 
decided  upon  before  his  birth.  In  this  shuffling  and 
cutting  of  the  cards,  the  trumps  that  turn  up  are  not 
always  honors.  But  no  individual  in  the  whole  series 
possessed  any  choice  in  this  vitalizing  of  the  family 
germs.  They  wait  for  favoring  conditions.  "  In  the 
thickest  pine-wood,"  says  Thoreau,  "  you  will  com- 
monly detect  many  little  oaks,  birches,  and  other  hard 
woods,  which  are  overshadowed  and  choked  by  the 
pines.  When  the  pines  are  cleared  off,  the  oaks,  hav- 
ing got  just  the  start  they  want  and  secured  favorable 
conditions,  immediately  spring  up  to  trees."  Farmers 
used  to  wonder,  when  they  burnt  off  a  tract,  to  see  a 
new  growth  without  any  planting  take  possession  of 
the  soil.  But  we  now  understand  that  the  old  growth 
merely  discouraged  the  forms  that  were  already  on 
the  spot  and  languishing  for  chances.  So,  every 
member   of    Mr.  Darwin's   family  possesses    all   the 


223  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

heir-looms :  but  no  individual  in  the  whole  long  series 
can  ever  account  for  his  fancy  to  furnish  his  new 
house  with  them.  The  feudal  brigands  who  called 
themselves  barons  while  they,  were  levying  toll  on 
their  domains,  appear  afterward  at  the  Old  Bailey 
under  the  style  and  title  of  highway-robber,  and  are 
comfortably  hung  by  proxy.  Felony  or  piety  may 
skip  a  generation  or  two  because  the  ground  is  occu- 
pied by  some  other  alternation  of  germs,  but  they  are 
sure  to  reappear.  All  our  senses  are  detectives  ;  and 
a  dead  ancestor  is  liable  to  arrest  in  the  person  of  his 
descendant. 

The  Chinese,  in  connection  with  their  worship  of 
ancestors,  have  the  practice  of  conferring  rank  and 
dignity,  not  only  upon  the  person  who  extorts  it  by 
some  great  service,  but  upon  the  whole  line  of  his  dead 
ancestors.  The  title  does  not  pass  to  his  descendants, 
for  they  must  also  earn  distinction.  It  works  back- 
wardly  against  the  stream,  for  each  ancestor  has  been 
the  parent  of  a  man's  excellence,  by  transmitting  un- 
consciously the  atoms  of  nobility ;  so  the  title  puts 
into  each  port  and  deposits  a  part  of  its  return  cargo. 
The  ancestor  was  like  a  bale  of  goods  in  which  rare 
seeds  of  the  tropics  get  transported  to  new  soil.  Or, 
he  reminds  us  of  the  bird  that  flies  with  a  crop-full 
of  cherry-stones,  and  enriches  with  them  a  pasture 
where  boulders  were  the  previous  sowing. 

This  theory  of  indestructible  seeds  lurking  in  every- 
body's physical  frame,  which  serves  Mr.  Darwin  to 
favor  his  idea  of  natural  transmissibility  of  traits, 
tlireatcns  to  do  us  a  mischief  in  the  moral  direction. 
We  are  obliged  to  accept  it,  or  some  modification  of 

* 


STRIFE    AND    SYMMETRY.  223 

it,  If  we  would  account  for  the  facts  of  inheritance. 
They  are  too  plain  to  be  missed.  Lunacy  lies  dormant 
and  pacified  through  groups  of  charming  children^ 
to  creep  at  last  from  its  burrow  and  climb  to  the  eyes 
of  one :  then,  a  look  that  has  been  dead  for  years 
"  revisits  the  glimpses  of  the  moon."  A  mother  can- 
not bear  to  knit,  but  she  has  a  child  who  knits  pre- 
cisely in  the  style  of  its  grandmother.  Lady  Frances 
Howard  had  a  mother  who  taught  her  to  be  "  unspeak- 
ably venal  and  impure."  The  gifts  of  her  person 
were  as  rare  as  the  deficiencies  of  her  soul.  She 
married  Robert  Carr,  an  empty-headed  favorite  of 
King  James  ;  but  there  was  her  previous  husband  to 
get  rid  of;  also  a  friend  of  his  to  murder.  Divorce 
and  poison  legitimated  their  secret  profligacy  with  a 
marriage.  A  blue-eyed  girl  was  born  to  them  while 
they  lay  in  the  Tower,  under  the  charge  of  murder. 
Escaping  justice,  they  buried  themselves  in  the  ob- 
scurity of  the  country,  to  rear,  amid  mutual  reproaches 
and  a  godless  life,  the  daughter,  who  became  one  of 
England's  purest  women,  and  the  mother  of  Lord 
William  Russell,  who  died  for  resistance  to  royal  priv- 
ilesfe.     Does  God 


'&' 


"  set  such  pure  amens  to  hideous  deeds? 

Why  not?     He  overblows  an  ugly  grave 
With  violets  which  blossom  in  the  spring." 

Such  daughters  are  really  born  long  before  their  father 
and  mother  come  into  the  world. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  an  old  family  to  preserve  the 
law  of  primogeniture,  or  the  habit  of  exclusive  con- 
nections.    There  is  another  law  that  keeps  record  of 


2  24  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

virtues  and  vices  though  the  page  be  scored  with 
intermarriages.  The  manuscript  is  a  pahmpsest : 
whatever  writing  went  to  it  is  underneath,  and  Nature's 
sense  finds  means  of  being  read. 

But  what  effect  does  this  begin  to  have  upon  our 
feeling  of  moral  accountability?  In  one  direction  it 
has  a  good  effect,  to  show  us  that  Nature  insists  upon 
better  methods  of  dealing  with  criminals  and  all  the 
exceptional  victims  of' excesses.  It  would  have  a  bad 
effect  if  it  encouraged  average  men  and  women  to  put 
up  too  easily  with  their  imperfections.  If  medical 
jurisprudence  should  ever  become  scientific  enough  to 
prevent  a  jury  from  procuring  a  man  to  be  hung,  who 
had  been  expressly  born  to  repeat  the  propensity  and 
the  act  of  murder,  it  would  not  justify  a  juryman  in 
watering  his  sperm-oil  or  making  a  false  invoice  as 
soon  as  the  trial  is  over.  If  a  single  glass  of  liquor 
can  inflame  the  arson  in  a  man  who  began  burning  as 
soon  as  he  knew  enough  to  light  a  match,  it  ought  to 
stimulate  a  court  to  provide  treatment  more  medicinal 
and  restorative  than  a  perpetual  prison  ;  but  the  judge 
would  be  none  the  less  accountable  if  he  took  a  bribe 
or  pei-verted  judgment  to  soothe  some  popular  opin- 
ion. 

It  is  very  clear  that  there  are  exceptional  cases  in 
whom  the  sense  of  moral  accountability  is  as  low  as 
the  capacity  for  resistance  to  temptation.  One  is  the 
measure  of  the  other.  The  divine  mind  claims  through 
them  that  they  shall  be  exempted  from  our  contempt, 
and  treated  with  restoration  instead  of  punishment. 
Just  as  a  case  like  Laura  Bridgman's  is  a  hint  to  Dr. 
Howe  that,  if  the  blind,  the   deaf  and  dumb,  would 


STRIFE    AND    SYMMETRY.  225 

eventually  possess  ideas  and  be  put  in  communication 
with  mankind,  a  patience  that  cannot  tire,  and  an  in- 
vention that  baffles  the  closest  lock  of  the  senses,  and 
picks  them  open,  must  be  exercised.  There  is  a 
moral  disability  as  deep  as  this  that  appeals  to  courts 
for  the  justice  of  remedy  instead  of  penalty.  And  it 
is  for  science  to  instruct  the  bench,  by  putting  into 
every  case  of  moral  malformation  testimony  as  to  its 
responsibility :  for  men  who  are  not  born  to  be  hung 
are  actually  hung  for  having  been  born.  Nothing  but 
the  strictest  science  can  save  us  here  from  the  two  sins 
of  sentimentalism  and  cruelty. 

But  it  is  plain,  in  the  mean  time,  that  the  excejotions 
are  candidates  for  asylums  and  not  for  cells :  shut  up, 
already,  in  an  organization  that  crowds  in  upon  their 
life,  like  the  old  dungeons  whose  moveable  walls  les- 
sened the  prisoner's  air  daily,  to  crush  the  body  flat  at 
last.  Do  you  think  these  moral  prisoners  are  uncon- 
scious that  they  first  saw  the  light  in  prison,  first 
knew  their  own  brain  as  their  gaoler,  and  pressed 
their  soul  against  the  senses,  like  a  piteous  face  that 
clings  to  a  grated  window?  God  has  not  left  these 
without  a  taste  for  the  liberty  that  streams  into  them 
from  every  well-born  face  ;  they  have  glimpses  of  that 
domain  of  smiles,  good  women,  and  stray  breaths  from 
the  boundless  firmament  of  manhood.  They  know 
best  the  woe  of  their  inheritance  :  nothing  but  drink 
ever  does  or  can  blunt  their  feeling  of  inferiority,  and 
lend  flushes  of  mad  triumph  to  their  overt  acts.  To 
believe  otherwise  would  be  to  suspect  God  of  indiffer- 
ence to  his  maimed  and  helpless  children ;  their  dis- 
couragement is  his  pity  pleading  at  the  bar  of  all  our 

lO* 


226  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

courts   to    have    his    own   decree   overruled,    and   his 
poor  prisoners  remanded  into  love. 

Does  it  follow^,  then,  that  clerks  who  have  a  salary 
of  $1500  should  manage  to  spend  four  times  that  sum, 
upon  jDleasures  that  breed  moral  disability  within 
them,  that  the  trustee  shall  exculpate  himself  for  spec- 
ulating in  the  stocks  of  widows  and  orphans,  that  the 
gold  gambler  shall  strip  them  to  adorn  his  little  game, 
that  the  shopkeeper  shall  lie  about  his  goods,  that  a 
man  who  has  congested  his  brain  by  habitual  drinking, 
till  his  judgment  is  impaired  and  his  impulses  brutal- 
ized, can  take  a  shot  at  any  man  whom  he  imagines 
to  have  wronged  him,  and  be  acquitted  on  the  score  of 
his  congestion,  that  every  insolence  shall  pasture  upon 
the  indiscretions  and  confidences  of  mankind.^  The 
first  move  of  your  detected  sharper  would  be  to  allege 
irresistible  circumstances,  like  those  which  commend 
a  starving  mother  to  our  pity,  and  bid  us  extenuate  her 
theft.  Her  hunger  gnawed  herself  and  children  double, 
till  they  looked  over  a  grave's  edge.  Perhaps  it  was 
dug  by  generations  of  poverty.  His  hunger  was  its 
own  ancestor.  The  Chinaman  would  execrate  him  . 
directly,  and  not  look  critically  back  into  his  line. 

There  are,  then,  exceptions  created  by  birth,  and 
exceptions  which  spring  from  overpowering  circum- 
stances. All  of  them  are  appeals  to  us  to  discover  the 
sanitary  method  appropriate  to  every  case  :  so  that  a 
man  who  is  congenitally  mischievous  need  not  be 
punished  because  the  court  does  not  pronounce  him 
to  be  a  malicious  idiot,  and  consign  him  to  a  poor- 
house.  God  has  already  made  more  delicate  distinc- 
tions. 


STRIFE    AND    SYMMETRr.  227 

Exceptional  cases  must  be  put  aside,  however,  when 
we  treat  of  the  moral  dignity  of  the  average  man. 
How  clear  it  is  that  they  spontaneously  refer  themselves 
to  a  class  outside  of  the -average  accountability  of  man- 
kind. We  should  shake  bitter  fruit  from  Mr.  Darwin's 
family-tree  if  it  bore  excuse  and  subterfuge.  And 
what  are  his  constant  germs,  after  all,  but  a  device  of 
the  Creator  to  propagate  a  moral  strife  and  elect  it  to 
be  the  parent  of  symmetry?  If  moral  evil  recurred 
with  every  father  and  mother,  the  people  would  become 
brothers  of  the  gorilla  without  the  trouble  of  descend- 
ing from  him.  And  if  moral  innocence  had  been 
stereotyped  in  every  heart,  there  would  have  been  by 
this  time  a  nursery  containing  about  900,000,000  babes. 
Science  cannot  prove  all  germs  too  constant  for  our 
purpose,  which  is  to  maintain  that  personal  freedom 
and  accountability  have  a  definite  per  cent  of  advantage 
over  inheritance,  so  as  to  modify  the  character  of  the 
majority. 

Long  before  Mr.  Darwin  wrote,  mankind  tortured 
itself  with  questions  of  the  relation  of  its  acts  to  the 
power  and  foreknowledge  of  God.  Its  instinct  that 
some  traits  were  invariable  made  it  reason  thus  :  "  If 
God  foreknows  all  that  I  shall  do,  it  must  be  because  I 
have  a  tendency  to  do  those  things,  and  no  others  :  it 
is  intended  or  predestined  that  I  shall  do  them  ;  it  was 
seen  in  the  very  beginning  how  finite  beings  would 
conduct  themselves.  The  world  and  the  soul  were 
both  made  in  such  a  way  that  the  things  which  have 
been  done  must  have  been  done,  and  all  the  things 
which  I  shall  do  I  must  do,  otherwise  they  would  not 
be  done  ;  how,  then,  can  I  appear  to  myself  to  be  free 


238  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

to  do  as  I  please,  to  follow  evil  or  to  abstain  from  it, 
as  I  please ;  if  I  do  not  abstain  from  evil,  is  it  because 
my  evil  was  predestined,  and  if  it  was,  how  can  I  feel 
that  I  am  morally  accountable  ?  " 

When  this  question,  with  help  from  Scripture,  comes 
up  to  embarrass  us,  there  is  sometimes  a  disposition  to 
avoid  it  by  supposing  that  many  different  things  might 
have  happened  in  the  world  from  those  that  did  hap- 
pen, that  men  might  have  been  more  virtuous  and 
have  made  greater  progress.  The  object  is  to  shift  the 
responsibility  from  the  perfection  of  God  to  the  imper- 
fect volition  of  man.  But  we  perceive  that  this  shift- 
ing will  not  change  the  nature  of  the  question :  for  we 
must  still  refer  to  some  cause  the  fact  that  man  has 
been  so  created  that  he  acts  imperfectly,  no  matter 
whether  from  choice  or  necessity  ;  his  acts  must  have 
motives  and  causes,  and  they  must  be  in  his  organiza- 
tion, and  that  must  be  traced  back  to  the  organizer. 
I  have  always  thought  that  the  various  ways  of  dis- 
cussing this  interesting  question  have  only  been  so  many 
ways  for  avoiding  the  point  of  it,  either  to  clear  God  from 
blame  or  man  ;  that  is,  to  make  man  supreme  at  the 
expense  of  God's  freedom  and  accountability,  or  God 
supreme  at  the  expense  of  man's.  Whereas,  if  the  an- 
swer to  the  question  does  not  leave  God  supremely 
foreknowing  and  foreplanning,  and  man  sufficiently 
free  and  accountable,  the  question  has  not  been  an- 
swered at  all :  because  we  know  that  we  are  called 
upon  to  perform  certain  acts,  and  we  know  that  the 
divine  mind  must  have  foreseen  whether  we  shall  or 
can  perform  them  or  not. 

Without  stopping  to  rake  into  the  terrible  dust-heap 


STRIFE    AND    SYMMETRY.  229 

of  metaphysics  which  has  accumulated  around  this 
burrow  where  human  speculation  has  been  working, 
let  us  try  to  find  some  plain  and  rational  account  of 
our  relation  to  God's  foreplanning.  Then,  in  the  first 
place,  does  it  ever  occur  to  us  why  we  raise  these 
questions  ?  Why  do  we  desire  to  consider  ourselves 
free  and  accountable  beings,  and  why  do  we  shrink 
from  the  idea  that  every  good  and  evil  act  has  been 
precalculated  and  predetermined?  A  man  has  a  great 
advantage  here,  who  does  not  believe  in  the  originally 
depraved  condition  of  the  human  soul,  but  who  be- 
lieves, not  only  that  man  is  designed  to  acquire  good- 
ness, but  that  his  original  tendency  is  good,  that  the 
worst  child  of  the  worst  parents,  born  and  nurtured 
under  the  most  infamous  circumstances,  is  not  totally 
depraved.  If  we  believed  that  the  evil  in  our  nature 
counterbalanced  the  good,  we  could  not  find  any  rea- 
son for  desiring  to  be  free  and  accountable  beings. 
We  should  no  more  be  troubled  with  any  ideas  upon 
that  point,  than  a  cotton-gin  is  troubled  to  account  for 
the  fact  that  it  is  not  an  electro-magnetic  battery.  If 
we  tended  by  nature  in  the  main  towards  evil,  we  should 
be  machines,  and  the  question  of  our  moral  freedom 
would  be  indeed  settled  beforehand,  predetermined 
against  us,  arranged  from  the  beginning  against  virtue 
and  in  the  interest  of  vice.  There  would  be  no  reluc- 
tance to  believe  that  good  and  evil  are  both  the  me- 
chanical products  of  divine  foreknowledge.  But  we 
do  shrink  from  that  belief,  and  we  prefer  freedom  :  we 
welcome  responsibility  for  our  errors ;  there  is  rejoic- 
ing in  the  dignity  of  remorse  and  shame  ;  we  greet  the 
accusations    that   convince   us  that  our   conscience    is 


230 


AMERICAN   RELIGION. 


emancipating  us  when  it  tells  us  that  we  are  bound. 
What  a  proof  of  our  moral  freedom  it  is  !  We  have  a 
voice  that  is  capable  of  telling  us  that  we  are  the  slaves 
of  a  bad  habit.  If  this  slavery  were  predestined  it  would 
be  unavoidable.  What,  then,  would  be  the  value  of 
the  voice  ?  It  would  be  only  insult  added  to  the  injury 
of  our  depravity :  an  ever-rankling  rebuke  of  some- 
thinsf  too  mechanical  to  deserve  rebuke. 

How  is  the  voice  of  conscience  possible  if  it  had  not 
been  predetermined  that  we  should  act  conscientiously 
and  purely?  See,  the  very  words  we  use,  having  the 
flavor  of  righteousness  in  them,  are  unaccountable  if 
we  are  not  free  to  choose  between  the  evil  and  the 
good.  Look' at  all  the  words  which  we  use  in  speak- 
ing of  moral  action,  and  the  feelings  that  belong  to 
them.  They  grow  out  of  the  kindly  soil  of  a  nature 
that  is  destined  for  goodness ;  like  all  other  words, 
representing  truths  and  facts,  they  are  invented  by  the 
soul  out  of  its  own  substance,  and  pass  into  circulation 
without  raising  the  least  suspicion  of  their  genuineness. 
I  would  like  to  ask  how  a  man  who  believes  in  any 
orthodox  scheme  of  depravity  would  account,  on  simple 
terms  of  natural  development,  for  the  mere  existence 
of  the  beautiful  moral  words  that  express  the  holiness 
of  hearts,  and  of  the  other  words  by  which  we  mark  our 
sense  of  its  opposite.  Where  do  the  phrases  "  a  hate- 
ful crime,"  "  an  ugly  disposition,"  "  a  mean  and 
grovelling  nature,"  come  from?  If- we  grovelled  by 
nature,  we  should  not  defame  our  nature  by  inventing 
these  disagreeable  epithets.  Would  an  implement 
that  is  made  to  inflict  pain  and  to  spread  destruction 
all  around  vilify  itself,  find  fault  with  its  original  in- 


STRIFE    AND    SYMMETRY.  23! 

tention?  Its  acts  are  its  words,  and  they  simply  ex- 
press a  calculated  mechanism.  But  our  words  of 
o^Dprobrium  find  fault  with  ourseives  and  with  our 
neighbors  ;  they  arrest  our  course,  they  bring  us  up  to 
the  bar  of  opinion  and  of  judgment.  They  are  sug- 
gested by  a  universal  sense  of  what  is  beautiful  and  of 
good  report,  and  are  the  police  of  a  soul  that  desires 
to  live  in  order  and  never  to  draw  down  upon  itself 
their  bitter  ministrations. 

If  it  were  not  for  the  light  of  the  sun,  we  should  not 
have  the  contrast  and  opposite  of  midnight.  It  is  in 
the  very  act  of  flooding  the  universe  with  sunshine 
that  the  central  orb  marks  its  position  by  a  multitude 
of  shadows.  They  are  fleeting,  but  the  light  continues  ; 
dense,  obstinate,  uncomfortable  as  they  are,  the  mighty 
parent  of  gladness  and  morning  betrays  its  existence 
and  marks  its  motion  by  their  dusky  fringes.  They 
mark  it  but  they  cannot  stay.  Their  quarters  are  con- 
tinually beaten  up  by  the  advance  of  daylight,  and 
their  existence  is  a  continual  decamping.  So  the 
words  of  our  moral  aversion  mark  the  supremacy  of 
an  inner  light. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  words  of  our  moral  ap- 
proval must  describe  our  real  nature,  as  it  was  prede- 
termined, for  in  this  respect  they  are  like  all  the  words 
representing  the  qualities  that  prevail  in  the  natural 
world.  For  instance,  take  the  qualities  of  motion,  as 
they  are  illustrated  by  the  stone  that  leaves  the  boy's 
sling,  or  the  planet  that  was  hurled  with  a  similar 
force  from  the  centre  of  divine  origination.  What  is 
the  prevailing  quality  of  motion?  Not  crookedness, 
not  stiffness,  not   a    snarled    irregularity.     These    are 


232 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


phrases  which  spring  from  our  observation  that  the 
great  movements  of  the  v^orld  are  straight,  or  circular, 
or  spiral,  or  meandering,  or  descriptive  of  all  the  beau- 
tiful sections  of  a  cone.  These  are  gracious  and  ac- 
ceptable words,  pleasing  to  the  inner  sense  of  harmony 
and  proportion  which  we  inherit  from  the  Mind  that 
made  the  world.  Whenever  we  observe  a  movement 
in  some  limited  space  that  is  wanting  in  the  beautiful 
and  easy  sweep  of  all  the  great  movements  which 
keep  worlds  turning,  leaves  springing  from  a  stalk,  and 
gems  from  a  centre,  we  apply  language  to  it  that 
marks  our  sense  of  its  discrepancy.  When  we  say  it 
is  crooked,  we  brand  it  with  our  feeling  that  crooked- 
ness does  not  prevail  throughout  the  works  of  God. 
The  notion  would  not  be  possible  if  our  mind  were  not 
preoccupied  by  the  idea  .that  symmetry  prevails.  The 
excejDtions  are  the  shadows  that  bound  the  light,  and 
are  constantly  decamping  at  its  approach.  A  feeling 
of  this,  which  is  kindred  to  a  feeling  of  moral  propor- 
tion, still  exists  among  people  whose  intelligence  is 
sunk  in  barbarism.  In  the  lines  of  their  canoes  and 
the  curves  of  their  paddles  they  have  to  conform  to  the 
motions  of  winds  and  waves  ;  and  they  weave  up  with 
the  gestures  of  their  dances  the  refined  swayings  of  the 
stars  that  perform  their  measures  through  the  sky. 

What  a  wonderful  instrument  to  be  invented  by  the 
savages,  that  stand  the  lowest  in  the  scale  of  human 
intelligence,  is  the  boomerang  of  the  Australian.  It  is 
based  upon  an  instinctive  sense  of  the  beautiful  and 
accurate  motions  which  all  bodies  must  make  when 
they  pass  through  a  resisting  medium.  As  it  darts 
afar,  then  glides  upward  like  a  bird,  and  turning  back- 


STRIFE    AND    SYMMETRY.  233 

ward  seeks  the  hand  that  threw  it ;  or,  dipping  and 
rising,  stretches  out  by  a  long  curve  to  pass  the  corner 
of  a  wood  or  the  brow  of  a  hill  to  strike  its  object,  it 
imitates  the  ellipses  of  the  sky.  The  air  resists  the 
freedom  of  the  weapon,  which,  in  overcoming,  in  as- 
serting itself,  in  carrying  out  its  natural,  efficiency, 
finds  that  what  limits  its  freedom  endows  it  with  grace. 
The  savage  teaches  us  that  Nature  is  everywhere  on 
such  good  terms  with  Nature,  that  the  apparent  quar- 
rel is  only  a  healthy  wrestling  between  two  friends. 
The  man  says  to  the  angel :  "I  will  not  let  thee  go 
except  thou  bless  me."  The  sweep  of  the  boomerang 
brings  back  to  us  from  the  original  design,  that  is  just 
out  of  sight,  our  positive  and  pleasant  words. 

Then  our  moral  freedom  must  consist  in  our  per- 
sonal vindication  of  the  original  design  against  all  the 
exceptions  and  the  apparent  contradictions.  Our  finite 
life  is  thrown  directly  into  the  midst  of  these,  on  pur- 
pose that  our  souls,  by  resisting  them,  may  learn  to 
share  the  original  freedom.  It  is  put  into  us,  with  all 
its  seeds,  to  be  developed  into  vital  conformity  with  a 
primitive  intention.  If  we  lived,  upon  the  great  scale, 
an  infinite  life,  that  should  comprehend  all  the  real 
motions  and  forces  of  the  universe,  we  should  not  be 
troubled  with  the  exceptions,  they  would  not  be  so 
styled  by  us,  and  the  word  contradiction  would  be 
as  impossible  to  us  as  it  is  to  God.  But  we  live,  upon 
the  little  scale,  a  finite  life  :  the  moral  freedom  that  is 
destined  for  a  wider  life  learns  its  first  lesson  close  to 
the  earth  and  thrust  into  a  body ;  on  every  hand 
comes  resistance  to  develop  its  free  and  beautiful 
movements ;    the    insignificant    bit    of    road   that   w^e 


234 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


travel  with  so  much  fighting  and  privation  seems  a 
stunted  and  a  distorted  bit,  until  we  discover  that  it  is 
part  of  the  long  sweep  of  the  freedom  that  makes  our 
souls  a  divine  endowment. 

It  is  resistance  that  decides  the  beginning  of  every 
graceful  line.  If  it  were  not  for  that,  we  should 
neither  know  that  we  had  freedom  or  were  capable 
of  developing  it.  Put  before  every  human  being  his 
choice,  perplexed  as  he  is  and  often  desperate  among 
the  obstacles  to  his  moral  welfare,  between  respon- 
sibility for  all  his  actions  and  irresponsibility,  and 
he  will  be  eager  to  claim,  before  God,  the  privilege  of 
being  held  accountable  for  all  his  depravity.  Before 
man,  he  will  extenuate  and  excuse,  to  win  opinion,  or 
escape  from  it.  But,  notwithstanding  his  repeated 
failures,  and  the  sense  of  shame  they  kindle  in  him, 
he  is  in  no  hurry  to  get  any  consolation  or  immunity 
from  any  doctrine  that  destroys  his  moral  freedom. 
We  all  cling  to  that :  it  came  down  with  the  rest  of 
our  birthright.  And  it  is  the  common  sense  which 
prevents  all  the  theological  jugglery  about  free-will 
and  foreknowledge  from  troubling  our  mind. 

We  are  created  with  a  preference  for  the  perfection 
which  we  have  not  reached.  That  is  God's  fore- 
knowledge in  our  case.  He  knows  that  we  will  fall 
into  vices,  but  that  we  prefer  goodness  ;  and  that  will 
eventually,  either  here  or  elsewhere,  vindicate  his 
jolan.  He  secured  in  advance  the  moral  complexion 
of  every  one  of  us  for  the  remainder  of  this  year.  As 
an  astronomer  will  calculate  to  a  second  the  arrival  of 
the  earth's  shadow  upon  the  moon's  disc,  he  might 
calculate,  if  he  cared  for  superfluous  knowledge,  the 


STRIFE    AND    SYMMETRY.  235 

moment  when  a  temptation  will  touch  the  soul  to 
overspread  it.  He  might  calculate,  too,  that  with  the 
moment  of  its  departure  there  will  recur  the  prefer- 
ence of  the  soul  for  light.  The  eclipse  is  not  the  law 
of  the  soul,  but  one  of  the  circumstances  of  its  career 
that  makes  the  light  more  precious  and  adorable  than 
ever.  We  should  not  feel  the  chill,  nor  be  conscious 
of  the  dusk,  if  the  law  of  our  soul  were  not  a  hunger 
for  light.     We  are  free  to  hunger  for  it. 

This  hunger  is  the  expression  of  the  moral  attain- 
ment possible  to  each  individual,  and  cannot  be  the 
same  in  all,  because  the  structure  is  not  the  same. 
But  it  announces  the  moral  function  that  is  possible  to 
each.  And  all  freedom  must  of  course  be  relative  to 
the  amount  of  this  latent  possibility. 

As  exercise,  however,  develops  this  function,  it 
enables  it  to  crave  more  satisfaction,  just  as  the  mus- 
cular system,  trained  by  labor  and  expanded  to  the 
limits  of  each  one's  capability  of  growing  muscle, 
demands  a  greater  variety  and  amount  of  food.  If  it 
receives  this  increase  it  is  kept  in  its  highest  normal 
condition.  And  as  in  this  way  impaired  states  and 
defects  of  the  muscular  system  can  be  overcome,  so 
moral  exercise  can  do  a  great  deal  to  obviate  inherited 
disinclination  to  perform  much  moral  service,  can 
resist  tricks,  and  modify  the  characters  of  the  struc- 
ture. But  freedom  is  individual,  and  cannot  transcend 
the  possibilities  of  the  structure.  It  is  none  the  less 
absolute,  so  far  as  each  man  is  concerned,  and  not 
removed  from  his  private  control.  He  is  free  to 
hunger  for  it.  There  is  our  answer  to  those  heaps  of 
metaphysics,  tons  upon  tons  of  dust,  that  have  accu- 


236  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

mulated  about  this  question.     It  is  the  answer  of  God 
throuofh  the  voice  of  our  human  preference. 

If  any  one  is  disposed  to  say  that  we  might  have 
been  created  spotless,  and  incapable  of  spot,  I  an- 
swer, then  we  should  have  been  incapable  of  moral 
freedom.  The  very  pith  of  freedom  is,  to  choose  if 
you  fail,  and  to  choose  till  you  succeed  in  modifying 
the  sources  of  failure.  A  perfectly  regulated  and 
infallible  human  temper,  clock-work  skilfully  adjusted 
in  the  beginning,  and  warranted  to  run  upon  being 
wound  up,  is  the  nature  of  an  automaton.  Such  a 
human  being  would  be  devoid  of  every  emotion,  igno- 
rant of  the  bliss  of  working  to  save  its  personality  from 
the  conflict  of  circumstances.  We  prefer  to  find  cause 
for  laughter  and  for  tears,  to  feel  the  heart  leap  when 
the  soul  sounds  its  trumpet  of  warning,  to  have  our 
nerves  swept  like  a  harp  by  circumstances,  even  though 
the  strings  bend  to  cracking.  When,  after  many  trials, 
a  manly  character  learns  to  draw  sweet  and  firm  vibra- 
tions from  them,  and  every  thing  around  us  that  has 
waited  for  the  right  note  to  be  sounded  wakes  up 
responsive,  and  full-blooded  harmony  fills  all  the  air, 
we  begin  to  see  and  to  glory  in  the  divine  purpose. 
For  we  are  so  framed  that  the  repose  and  dead  infalli- 
bility of  a  machine  is  hateful  to  us.  If,  by  giving  up 
a  portion  of  our  moral  freedom,  we  could  be  spared  a 
few  tears  of  anguish,  is  there  a  man  who  would  not 
cling  to  his  freedom,  and  prize  the  tears  of  his  own 
remorse  as  drops  that  heaven  adopts  with  its  iris,  bid 
them  run,  and  bid  his  freedom  see  its  own  vindica- 
tion? We  long  to  wake  up  more  fully  to  the  glory  of 
finding  ourselves  in  peril,  compelled  to  fight  for  our 


STRIFE    AND    SYMMETRY.  237 

position,  rallied,  in  the  face  of  serious  opposition,  to 
support  our  preference  for  God,  to  taste  the  sweet  joy 
of  finding  that  we  are  equal  to  this  warfare,  and  that 
God  has  not  set  us  growing  like  a  shapely  tree,  or 
bending  heavily  with  unearned  fragrance  and  fruit : 
he  has  snatched  our  roots  from  an  inanimate  soil,  and 
here  we  are  floating  wide  in  the  perils  that  force  sym- 
metry upon  us. 

In  summer  strolls  upon  the  broad  beaches  where 
the  ocean  runs  by  your  side,  the  symbol  of  your  moral 
insecurity,  you  have  picked  up  the  symbol  of  your 
moral  symmetry.  It  is  nothing  but  a  shell :  "  frail, 
but  a  work  divine,"  because  its  delicate  outline  has 
been  forced  upon  it  by  the  restless  motions  of  the  ele- 
ment in  which  it  lived.  That  external  curve,  that 
spiral  of  successive  growths,  has  been  built  by  the 
curves  of  the  brine  itself:  it  represents  the  rhythm  of 
danger ;  the  little  tenant  has  unconsciously  secreted  its 
house  all  around  it  in  lines  that  correspond  to  the 
lines  that  threaten  its  frailness ;  in  hardening,  they 
express  the  very  motions  of  the  forces  that  are  inces- 
santly tossing  and  worrying  about  it,  and  they  assume 
the  only  shape  that  can  shed  these  forces  in  safety.  And 
the  cui*ve  grows  solid  while  the  waves  remain  fluid  ; 
so  that  you  pick  up  what  reminds  you  of  a  beautiful 
character,  whose  lines  are  moulded  in  correspondence 
to  its  perils.  The  souls  that  are  thrown  into  this 
ocean  of  moral  freedom  grow  in  the  grace  which  at 
once  describes  and  repels  its  uncertainties. 

Your  child  puts  his  ear  to  the  shell's  smooth  lips  that 
are  purple  v/ith  the  speech  of  victory,  and  listens,  fancy- 
ing that  the  sound  of  the  sea  still  lingers  in  its  handi- 


238  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

work.  But  the  sound  is  in  his  own  ear,  and  might 
say  to  him  that  his  heart  is  a  deep  not  yet  disturbed 
enough  to  fashion  and  complete  his  beauty.  How 
loner  it  will  be,  too,  before  he  understands  that  he 
secretes  the  walls  of  his  building  from  a  material  that 
is  furnished  by  his  apparent  enemy  ! 

What  should  we  say  would  be  the  effect  upon  man's 
character  if  the  natural  elements,  such  as  electricity, 
magnetism,  vapor,  had  no  difficulties  for  his  manage- 
ment :  if  he  could  strangle  them  in  his  cradle  ;  if  God 
made  them  over  to  us  in  traces  and  martingale,  trained 
not  to  shy  nor  kick,  their  uses  understood  b}'-  instinct, 
their  properties  discovered  without  the  expense  of  a 
single  accident,  not  a  hurt  to  life  or  limb,  no  hazard 
in  applying  them  to  the  purposes  of  our  material  life  ; 
if  every  flaw  in  a  boiler  were  respected,  every  break 
in  the  lightning-rod  jumped  by  tlie  deferential  fluid, 
every  failure  to  make  a  weld  in  moulding  shafts  or 
cannon  let  pass  without  an  accident,  every  compres- 
sion of  vapor  kept  within  a  destructive  expansibility,  — 
bad  air  at  the  bottom  of  a  well,  and  gases  that  rush 
out  behind  the  miner's  pickaxe,  harmless  as  daylight ; 
a  box  of  nitro-glycerine,  by  just  throwing  at  another 
person's  head,  turned  into  a  poultice  for  his  pimple  ! 
Why  should  we  not  whine  about  the  catastrophes  that 
arise  in  dealing  with  the  elements  as  well  as  about 
the  perils  of  our  moral  freedom  ?  The  God  who  cre- 
ated the  elements  to  be  our  ministers  foreknew  and 
predestined  all  the  tricks  they  play  upon  our  ignor- 
ance. He  might  have  made  us  impenetrable  to  their 
blind  furies,  so  that  we  could  study  them  in  safety, 
harness  them  to  our  team,  as  a  boy  ties  a  string  to  his 


STRIFE    AND    SYMMETRY.  339 

rocking-horse  and  exults  in  the  imagination  of  his 
fiery  gallop.  Fortunately  not :  for  instead  of  being 
boys  with  rocking-horses,  we  desire  to  be  men  clothed 
in  the  thunder  we  have  tamed,  and  carrying  weapons 
which  our  own  tears  quenched  and  tempered  into 
steel.  Dominion  over  Nature,  discovery  of  her  secrets, 
application  of  her  powers,  is  not  done  by  babes  who 
smile  in  their  fatuous  sleep  upon  the  mother's  breast. 
They  are  safe  from  harm  there,  but  they  are  also  far 
removed  from  manhood,  mere  lumps  of  contingent 
humanity,  alive  as  long  as  they  are  held.  Men  are 
not  afraid  to  drive  the  team  of  physical  catastrophes ; 
they  are  freighted  with  knowledge  and  power.  You 
cannot  conceive  of  any  other  way  to  get  control  of 
elements  except  by  personal  experience  of  their  liabil- 
ities ;  no  other  way,  unless  you  are  the  God  who  made 
them.  If  they  were  a  gift  to  us,  and  came  by  instinct, 
we  should  not  be  the  men  who  could  use  them.  Vir- 
tue itself  that  comes  by  instinct  uses  the  man  who 
inherits  it,  and  is  only  the  advertisement  of  a  previous 
freedom.  The  law  of  freedom  is,  that  peril  and  ad- 
vantage walk  hand  in  hand.  What  sister-angels  on 
the  threshold  of  earth  !  Defying  each  other  in  har- 
mony, repelling  each  other's  glances  till  they  melt 
into  a  look  of  concurrence,  so  that  man  is  no  sooner 
alarmed  than  he  is  attracted,  and  he  sees  that  it  is  God 
himself  who  has  divided  himself  thus  that  his  will 
may  be  done. 

Experience  seems  to  furnish  us  with  the  deduction 
that  His  will  partly  is  to  create  and  to  fund  great 
crowds  of  veteran  souls,  who  have  discovered  what 
justice  is  in   conflict  with    injustice  ;    who    have  not 


240 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


learned  righteousness  by  rote,  nor  imbibed  sincerity 
as  a  flower  draws  sap  or  a  babe  takes  milk :  souls 
wiio  have  not  been  content  with  an  instinct  for  good- 
ness, but  have  hazarded  their  life,  and  put  their  moral 
freedom  on  the  venture  to  make  it  positively  known 
and  lived  by  them  ;  souls  covered  with  the  scars  that 
victory  healed  but  was  too  proud  to  obliterate.  We 
indulge  an  expectation  that  these  souls,  accountable 
for  every  vice,  but  predestined  to  prefer  the  nature  of 
God,  are  recruited  into  other  armies  to  maintain  the 
purpose  of  freedom  upon  other  fields.  As  my  glance 
falls  by  night  through  the  depths  of  a  clear  sky,  where 
the  stars  attract  like  virtues  not  yet  reached,  a  sugges- 
tion comes  to  me  that  God  has  other  fields,  and  beyond 
the  utmost  verge  of  vision  and  imagination  work  still 
for  moral  freedom  to  perform,  glories  for  accountable 
beings  to  gather,  and  new  illustrations  of  foreplanning. 
If  so,  the  sky  is  not  too  deep  for  souls  wlio  learn  to 
swim,  and  the  ocean  of  this  earth's  moral  danger  is 
large  enough  for  our  training. 

Does  it  seem  to  us  that,  after  all,  there  might  have 
been  a  better  way  ?  Perhaps  we  hate  evil  so  sincerely 
that  we  shrink  from  deliberately  showing  that  God 
made  it  an  element  of  moral  freedom.  Perhaps  our 
lucky  temperament  never  had  to  contest  a  single  point, 
and  cannot  imagine  this  style  of  optimism.  But  I  ask, 
Is  it  not  so?  —  was  it  not  foreknown  that  it  would  be 
so  ?  How  then  could  there  have  been  a  better  way  ? 
We  must  believe  that  a  perfect  Mind  takes  the  best 
way  to  bring  its  children  towards  its  own  perfection. 
When  we  begin  to  wonder  if  there  might  not  have 
been  better  ways,  do  we  not  see  that  we  begin  to  cast 


STRIFE    AND    SYMMETRY.  24I 

imputations  upon  one  of  the  best  ideas  we  have, 
namely,  that  the  divine  intelligence  is  all-perfect  and 
all-wise  ?  Every  circumstance  connected  with  our 
physical  and  moral  life  must  go  to  that  idea  for  its 
interpretation ;  because  there  is  no  other  idea  in  the 
soul,  so  centrally  situated,  so  constantly  prevailing,  so 
distinctly  to  be  made  out  as  latent  in  its  primeval  sub- 
stance. One  can  hardly  have  patience  to  hear  the 
supposition  that  the  power  of  God  did  not  select  the 
shortest  and  the  swiftest  road  to  its  purpose  ;  that  evil 
is  a  mistake,  a  misfortune,  an  afterthought  of  fallen 
man  ;  that  death  and  sin  came  by  the  weakness  of 
man  instead  of  by  the  unshakable  consistency  of  God  ; 
that  God  is  now  trying  to  repair  an  oversight,  or  to 
neutralize  the  unfortunate  uses  that  man  made  of  his 
freedom  ;  that  the  earth  has  got  away  from  God  far- 
ther than  he  expected  that  it  would,  farther  than  is 
consistent  with  his  absolute  perfection.  I  see  in  all 
things  absolute  perfection  ;  that  I  see  at  all  is  proof 
to  me  that  I  see  in  the  best  way,  and  that  moral 
freedom  is  not  clear  from  vice  is  proof  to  me  that 
vice  is  essential  to  moral  freedom.  Else  why  is  it 
here,  whence  came  it,  whither  does  it  tend?  If  I 
cannot  answer  such  questions  so  as  to  accept  all  the 
facts,  I  deny  God  as  flatly  as  the  man  does  who  denies 
that  God  exists  at  all ;  because  I  set  up  some  of  the 
facts  as  being  inconsistent  with  the  nature  of  a  God. 

It  ought  to  be  the  aim  of  our  intelligence  to  see 
what  facts  there  are  in  this  universe,  especially  those 
which  touch  our  character  most  nearly,  to  call  them 
by  their  right  names,  and  to  hold  all  of  them  up  to 
the   divine   honor.     All   of   them.     There  is   a   plant 

II 


242 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


called  Hyoscia7nus  falezlez^  that  grows  in  the  Sahara 
It  kills  in  a  few  hours  the  horse,  the  ass,  the  dog  and 
man,  but  will  fatten  camels,  goats  and  sheep.  Noth- 
ing- can  be  without  its  uses.:  from  the  poison  lurking 
in  the  herb  which  a  sheep  can  eat  though  it  kills  a 
man,  to  that  element  which,  by  threatening  man's 
moral  freedom,  makes  him  so  much  better  than  a 
sheep,  and  such  a  monument  of  the  infinite  foresight. 
And  here  we  are  maintaining  the  great  problem. 
How  can  we  account  for  a  moral  argument  that  could 
not  have  been  held  by  the  man  who  was  contemporary 
with  the  mastodon,  though  he  had  wit  enough  to  slay 
the  creature?  Such  strife  as  his  rude  weapons  inau- 
gurated has  scattered  hospitals  and  churches  all  over 
the  surfaces  where  primitive  passions  browsed  and 
raged  in  the  shape  of  animals.  One  after  another 
huge  blustering  becomes  extinct,  or  is  huddled  into 
obscure  places,  just  as  the  old  animality  still  lurks  in 
each  man's  cerebellum.  But  when  you  count  the  cen- 
turies of  culture,  you  mark  the  successive  terraces 
whence  strife  receded  and  left  the  land  to  symmetry. 
It  is  like  the  effort  of  mankind  to  build  a  ship.  The 
first  dwellers  upon  coasts  ventured  out  to  fish  a  little 
in  a  vehicle  like  a  feeding-trough,  burned  and  hacked 
without  taste  out  of  the  trunk  of  a  tree.  Men  began 
in  this  way  to  learn  what  motions  water  makes,  and 
what  form  best  answered  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
winds,  currents  and  billows.  It  was  a  constant  fight 
to  match  peril  with  a  cutwater:  and  the  old,  half 
hollowed  trunk,  with  both  ends  as  blunt  as  the  sense 
of  the  builders,  passed  through  all  the  stages  of  con- 
test, represented  by  the  Japanese  junk,  the  Phenician 


STRIFE    AND    SYMMETRY.  243 

galley,  the  Roman  trireme,  pirogue  and  catamaran  of 
the  South-Seas,  balsa  of  the  Peruvians,  caique  of  the 
Turk,  and  kayak  of  the  Esquimaux,  till  flocks  of 
ships  hide  it  within  their  graceful  lines,  and  are  shep- 
herded by  willing  winds  into  all  the  seas  of  ample 
maintenance.  In  the  deep  hold  of  this  symmetry  which 
has  been  extorted  from  centuries  of  foul  weather,  the 
mild  civilizations  of  mankind  pass  safely  to  and  fro, 
and  traffic  in  ideas,  charities,  and  beauties.  The  first 
savage  who  strusrsfled  with  nature  is  still  inside  the 
last  soul  made  ;  but  he  is  so  enveloped  in  buoyant  and 
sea-wort)iy  curves  that  he  rides  on  the  bulk  of  danger- 
ous problems,  weathers  the  lee  shores,  and  swings  to 
in  the  harbor  of  his  moral  freedom. 


X. 

A   CONSCIENCE    FOR   TRUTH. 

SOME  of  the  Fakirs,  or  reputed  saints  of  India, 
make  a  point  of  standing  upon  one  foot  for  such 
a  length  of  time  that  they  succeed  in  being  incapable 
of  putting  the  other  foot  to  the  ground.  Or  they  sit 
in  some  constrained  posture  until  all  natural  gestures 
and  motions  become  impossible.  In  other  words, 
they  share  that  notion  of  religion  which  makes  it  con- 
sist in  some  isolated  actions,  some  separation  from 
the  general  health  and  usefulness  of  human  kind. 
The  result  of  it  is  always  some  kind  of  shrivelling  and 
maiming.  A  Dervish  who  occupies  both  his  hands 
with  holding  up  one  foot  while  he  goes  hopping  on 
the  other,  and  repeats,  "  There  is  no  God  but  God  ! " 
is  a  very  fair  specimen  of  the  sentimentalism  that 
takes  God  out  of  the  powers  he  has  created,  and  puts 
him  into  excessive  gifts  or  tendencies  that  earn  our 
phrases  of  commendation.  Of  what  consequence  is 
the  venerable  nature  of  the  phrase?  One  of  the  safest 
things  a  man  can  say  is,  that  there  is  no  God  but  God  ; 
but  he  cannot  be  understood  to  allude  to  that  Person 
who  has  created  two  feet  for  religion  to  stand  upon,  if, 
while  he  says  it,  he  struggles  to  make  one  foot  suffice. 


A    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH.  245 

And  heaven  must  scorn  the  humility  which  we  tele- 
graph thither  by  genuflection  ;  it  must  prefer  the  man- 
liness that  stands  by  all  created  gifts,  and  looks  itself 
in  the  face  without  pretence  of  worship.  God  is  all 
the  time  premeditating  the  hands  and  feet,  the  senses 
of  the  body,  the  procreating  and  divining  brain  :  in  the 
pleasure  of  each  function  he  "  renews  his  ancient 
rapture." 

Suppose  we  say  that  God  was  in  divine  men  recon- 
ciling the  world  to  himself.  It  is  very  true,  until  we 
isolate  the  phrase  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  break 
off  the  continuous  incomingf  of  some  force  into  all  our 
truth,  our  hopes,  and  our  love.  The  infinite  is  in  its 
great  men  by  virtue  of  its  eternal  longing  towards 
mankind,  to  become  incarnate  in  them,  and  to  acquire 
some  emphasis  for  the  moral  law.  And  whatever  we 
may  think  of  separate  men,  it  is  certain  that  mankind 
is  full  of  grace  and  truth.  The  great  names  that  stand 
for  the  happy  organizations  along  whose  lips  the 
divine  breath  played  its  sweet  and  solemn  harmonies, 
stand  also  for  the  whole  of  organized  humanity  :  all 
lips  are  ranged  conveniently,  and  the  visiting  breath 
extorts  their  half  and  quarter  notes.  What  harmony 
the  whole  obedience  of  a  generation  must  procure  ! 
The  Being  who  extends  beyond  its  limits  is  alone  in  a 
position  to  detect  and  enjoy  its  majestic  fulness,  as  of 
the  music  which  Pythagoras  said  the  planets  made 
by  the  ratio  of  their  bulk  and  movements  through  the 
vibrating  ether  :  the  inhabitants  of  the  planets  are  part 
of  the  movement,  and  cannot  overhear  it. 

Yet,  sometimes,  when  human  aftairs  have"  accumu- 
lated into  a  moment  of  intense  interest,  there  is  a  hush, 


246  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

or  mood  of  expectation,  just  before  the  crisis,  during 
wliich  men  become  conscious  of  the  exalted  condition 
of  their  powers  :  they  hear  the  consent  of  many  con- 
sciences, they  feel  that  they  are  harmonizing  with  a 
lofty  wilL  After  the  wind  has  been  blowing  offshore 
for  some  time  there  is  a  lull,  just  before  a  change  of 
the  wind  from  seaward.  In  that  lull,  the  mustering 
waves  lift  up  their  innumerable  voice.  Careless  stroll- 
ers on  the  beach  drop  their  spoil  of  sea-stray,  and  the 
breath  of  the  consenting  anthem  freshens  them  with 
awe. 

A  few  years  ago  the  American  people  overheard 
the  thunder  of  their  own  awakening,  as  the  moral  law, 
which  had  been  beaten  down  so  long  by  the  hostility 
of  slavery,  had  gathered  in  too  many  hearts  to  be 
repressed  any  longer.  The  States  seemed  clustered 
in  the  sweet  and  firm  gradation  of  the  pipes  for  a  Pan 
to  touch,  with  lips  that  gathered  a  great  purpose,  as  a 
note  went  up  from  each  to  frame  the  accord  which  at 
the  time  we  called  our  Patriotism,  as  we  listened  to 
the  unexpected  sound  ;  but  it  was  the  climax  of  an 
inspiration,  a  possession  of  the  conscience  by  its  own 
law,  a  rapture  of  the  consent  of  millions  to  their  own 
likeness  with  divine  indignation  and  justice.  The 
moral  law  had  been  painfully  struggling  to  touch  this 
land  for  a  generation  :  many  bleeding  hands  had  been 
lifted  from  the  surf  to  grapple  with  points  of  advant- 
age ;  their  efforts  were  God's  own  pertinacity  ;  lashed 
along  by  the  stress  of  his  jDresence,  they  were  caught 
by  the  undertow  and  swept  backward  all  the  time,  till 
suddenly,  what  seemed  drowning  became  rescue  and 
safety,  and  we  climbed   from   the  iron-bound  coast  to 


A    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH.  247 

the  meadows  where  the  amaranths  grew  for  our  he- 
roes. Foreign  observers  who  were  lounging  curiously 
up  and  down  along  the  edge  of  our  whitening  pur- 
pose dropped  their  trifles,  and  hailed  the  "  uprising  of 
a  great  people  "  as  they  termed  it ;  our  whole  history 
culminating  to  speak  in  the  first  rash  gun  that  struck 
all  consciences  with  the  same  force,  and  set  them 
vibrating  into  unity. 

But  it  makes  a  great  difference  whether  we  say  that 
God  invented  the  moral  sense,  put  it  into  a  world  of 
good  and  evil,  so  organized  as  to  be  attracted  by  the 
one  and  repelled  by  the  other  instinctively,  without 
any  farther  complicity  of  the  divine  mind,  or  whether 
we  make  that  Mind  in  some  way  the  participant  of 
the  sense  thus  invented,  and  therefore  its  perpetual 
guarantee.  A  moral  sense  is  not  merely  a  contrivance 
for  detecting  and  holding  on  to  goodness,  like  the  ma- 
chines which  reject  dirt  and  foreign  objects  and  pass 
the  proper  staple  through.  But  personal  sympathy  is 
the  life  of  it.  Approbation  and  disapprobation  are  the 
personal  feelings  that  justify  and  inspire  its  sense  of 
ri2;ht  and  wronof.  And  as  one  human  conscience 
seeks  the  alliance  of  another,  thus  doubling  the  strength 
which  it  shares  by  fraternity,  can  the  infinite  Con- 
science be  content,  after  having  made  our  moral  sense 
of  such  a  temper,  to  forego  the  delights  of  personal 
sympathy  ?  And  it  cannot  be  only  a  delight,  such  as  a 
great  artist  takes  in  observing  the  exquisite  and  infal- 
lible adaptation  to  some  result  of  something  he  has 
made:  must  it  not  be  cooperation  also,  personal  com- 
plicity, the  longing  of  an  infinite  Person  to  enjoy  his 
own  emphasis  in  the  thing  that  he  loved  to  make,  to 


248  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

continue  its  companion,  to  profit  by  its  activity  ?  The 
very  pith  of  the  business  of  inventing  consciences  w^as 
to  secure  a  right  of  passage  into  all  times  and  places 
where  spirit  conflicts  w^ith  matter,  and  good  with  evil. 
Was  there  an  intelligible  purpose  in  ordaining  such  a 
conflict,  and  was  there  love  as  well  as  wisdom  in  the 
purpose?  Into  what  remoteness,  then,  has  that  love 
vanished,  into  what  a  chilling  and  heartless  withdrawal, 
if  mankind,  after  becoming  compromised  to  suffer  for 
that  purpose,  is  left  discountenanced.  Each  genera- 
tion, instead  of  being  a  column  led  to  battle,  and  offi- 
cered,* cheered,  organized  clear  through  to  victory,  with 
its  inspiring  soul  in  every  movement,  would  be  a 
crowd  of  men  abandoned  by  its  general  after  he  has 
betrayed  it  into  an  ambush,  where  its  instincts  may 
fight  through  or  perish." 

Of  all  our  gifts,  the  conscience  is  the  most  sensible 
to  the  divine  immanence  :  it  has  such  faith  to  welcome, 
such  faith  to  detest,  such  an  instinct  to  set  things  right, 
such  sensitiveness  to  unhealthy  influences,  such  joy  in 
plain-dealing,  such  pain  when  duplicity  is  near.  What 
witness  is  there,  so  perpetual,  to  the  closeness  of  God.? 
It  is  heaven's  challenging  outpost,  furnished  with  the 
only  countersign.  Does  it  impair  our  belief  in  this  to 
remember  that  we  have  often  been  without  any  con- 
sciousness that  something  universal  would  fain  conspire 
with  us,  and  that  we  have  passed  through  flat  and 
dreary  periods  when  a  single  kindling  moment  would 
have  been  to  us  like  the  sight  of  a  palm-tree  to  a 
caravan.  There  is  no  gift  of  our  intelligence  that  is 
always  full  of  blood  ;  no  channel  to  the  soul  that  is 
always  spilling  over.     The  divine  force  retreats  from 


A    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH.  249 

the  yellow  fields  of  autumn,  and  does  not  keep  up  a 
perpetual  harvesting  :  but  the  soil  in  which  the  faded 
stubble  is  left  disconsolately  standing  is  filled  w^'th 
the  elements  that  make  it  liable  to  be  visited.  Con- 
straint loosens  its  hold  of  every  seed  in  the  returning 
sun.  This  appears  to  be  the  method  of  divine  activity 
in  our  structure  ;  not  an  inflammation  of  all  the  facul- 
ties at  once,  nor  a  continual  extolling  of  any  one  of 
them.     They  are  the  world's  opportunities. 

When  you  escape  to  the  sea-side  from  the  drowsy 
August  heats,  the  flat  brown  rocks  tempt  you  down  to 
caress  the  lip  of  the  retiring  tide  ;  it  seems  to  ofler 
itself  while  it  is  really  withdrawing.  And  the  recesses 
underneath  the  clifls  are  left  bare  ;  the  tawny  bunches 
of  weed  no  longer  sway  and  sparkle,  they  hang  dry 
and  dispirited.  All  the  sea-creatures  have  lost  their 
vivacity,  and  retreat  out  of  sight  into  the  darkest  and 
dampest  places,  underneath  low  ledges  where  you  can 
only  surmise  that  they  exist.  They  no  longer  taste 
the  brine.  But  it  soon  creeps  landward  again,  not 
having  forgotten  its  favorite  inlets,  nor  the  forms  of  life 
that  take  toll  of  it  to  get  through  the  day  with.  Inch 
by  inch,  as  if  hardly  eflectual  to  slide  up  so  far  and 
wet  its  old  inark  again,  it  gains  upon  you,  freshens 
pool  after  pool  full  of  humble  suitors,  till  at  length 
your  heart  feels  every  tentacle  that  is  out  of  sight  lifting 
to  breathe  :  you  know  that  the  anemone  repaints  its 
orange,  and  the  hermit-crab  scuttles  forth  to  surprise 
another  meal.  So  the  nourishment  of  spiritual  gifts  is 
constantly  renewed  :  they  cannot  hide  so  as  not  to  be 
visited,  they  cannot  languish  so  long  as  to  become 
impaired. 

n* 


250  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

But  we  must  not  be  deceived  by  all  the  notable  in- 
stances of  the  uprisings  of  a  popular  conscience,  and 
conclude  that  God  reserves  his  high  tides  for  these. 
Our  consciences  are  not  merely  his  opportunities  for 
heaping  up  great  critical  moments  of  history,  and  con- 
centratinsf  moral  virtue  against  disease  and  threatened 
dissolution.  Historical  purposes  rose  in  a  great  wave 
that  took  Athens  on  its  crest  and  dashed  it  against  the 
Persian  barbarism,  to  keep  that  from  violating  a  hearth 
at  which  civilization  and  the  arts  might  warm  them- 
selves. When  the  wave  subsided,  every  conscience 
was  like  the  pools  left  between  rocks,  where  life  goes 
on.  And  the  subsequent  development  of  morality, 
which  preserved  all  the  common  practical  truths  of 
the  conscience,  till  they  rose  to  a  high  tide  in  Socrates, 
was  just  as  liable  to  be  visited  and  freshened  by  the 
diurnal  presence,  and  just  as  dependent  upon  it,  as  the 
great  moments,  when  hearts  by  running  together  and 
surprising  each  other's  excellence  take  lire  with  en- 
thusiasm. When  this  country  lifted  against  slavery, 
there  were  no  more  consciences  in  it  than  before,  but 
they  suddenly  conspired  ;  if  the  ordinary  life  was  in- 
proved,  it  was  from  the  contagion  of  this  successful 
feeling :  it  freshened  all  the  gifts,  and  all  the  men  and 
women  held  a  nobler  and  a  purer  tone  with  each  other. 
Cliarity  became  more  self-forgetful,  forlorn  hopes  were 
recruited  to  victories ;  so  regenerating  is  fraternity. 
But  the  supreme  Tliought  has  not  retreated  from  that 
page  of  our  history  to  meditate  in  some  seclusion 
another  tliat  shall  shine  as  fair.  Our  sense  of  yea  and 
nay  lies  all  open  to  it  unprotected;  the  humblest  soul 
who  strives  to  be  honest  in  his  dealings,  and  wakes  in 


A    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH.  25I 

the  morning  to  nothing  more  brilliant  than  care,  noth- 
ing more  hazardous  than  some  temptation,  quite  out 
of  the  way,  never  to  be  mentioned,  hardly  obtrusive 
enough  to  secure  an  ej^itaph  at  last,  belongs  to  the 
history  of  his  time  because  his  conscience  belongs  to 
God. 

This  keeps  a  country  capable  of  inspiration,  liable 
to  swell  into  great  moments  that  are  mentioned  b}'  the 
voice  of  trumpets  :  this  level  of  the  divine  presence 
that  is  like  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  We  are  told 
that  when  an  orator  has  mounted  into  his  best  periods 
with  all  his  audience,  his  brain  is  filled  with  blood  and 
fits  tight  against  the  arches  of  the  head.  When  it 
shrinks  again,  it  is  with  the  loss  of  not  a  single  drop, 
and  the  heart's  regular  function  maintains  his  oppor- 
tunities. Let  it  seem  a  venerable  and  sacred  thought 
to  us,  that  our  structure  preserves,  as  God  pleases, 
from  day  to  day,  our  ordinary  pity,  love,  and  indigna- 
tion, our  sympathy  with  truths  and  causes,  our  dis- 
position to  defend  the  right,  and  stand  by  the  oppressed, 
our  friendships  and  our  genuine  affinities.  This  is 
our  real  citizenship  of  the  republic,  this  preponderance 
of  health  in  the  general  conscience.  What  is  it  but  a 
desire  to  anticipate  the  depravities  that  make  heroic 
remedies  necessary,  —  the  loss  of  blood  and  tears,  the 
wear  and  tear  of  gentle  sensibilities,  the  distrust  that 
puts  on  file  the  terrible  expense  and  criticises  Provi- 
dence. It  is  the  greatest  effort  of  divine  in-being  that 
keeps  the  general  sentiment  effective,  and  our  ordinary 
days  void  of  offence.  We  cannot  strike  a  more  fatal 
blow  against  religion  than  to  favor  a  theory  that  great 
moments,  shining  gifts,  peculiar  men,  exclusive  truths, 


252  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

uncommon  feelings,  announce  that  the  Person  has 
drawn  near,  and  selects  some  flesh  for  incarnation.  All 
the  great  elements  of  man,  like  air,  light,  magnetism, 
are  the  most  constant  and  the  most  diffused.  Neighbor- 
hoods live  upon  the  general  pity,  toleration,  sense  of 
responsibility  to  laws.  What  do  we  gain  by  placing 
so  much  emphasis  on  isolated  things?  We  remove 
them  from  the  benefit  of  the  common  sunshine.  There 
are  fish  that  have  accommodated  themselves  to  living 
in  the  Mammoth  Cave,  and  in  the  sublime  recesses  of 
the  Styrian  Alps.  But  they  have  paid  for  their  ex- 
clusiveness  by  the  loss  of  sight.  The  same  species 
that  live  in  waters  visited  by  the  unobtrusive  bounty 
of  the  daylight  preserve  the  faculty  of  vision.  And  if 
we  ever  think  that  it  sharpens  our  eye  to  hold  it  against 
an  aperture  where  the  light  seems  concentrated,  we 
shall  discover  too  late  that  it  has  been  dulled  for  the 
great  horizon  of  the  sky.  The  focus  is  so  bright  that 
the  optic  nene  is  paralyzed.  The  very  form  of  the 
eye  corresponds  to  the  concave  that  is  filled  from  brim 
to  brim  with  the  even  day. 

A  display  of  power  may  seem  to  be  great  because 
it  is  all  in  one  direction.  The  lightning  cuts  a  narrow 
channel  of  white  heat,  and  with  its  whole  resistless 
force  disappears  through  a  small  hole  seldom  bigger 
than  a  j^ea.  The  diftlised  sunshine  holds,  as  in  solu- 
tion, light  and  heat,  and  spills  all  over  the  rim  of  the 
planet.  It  is  hardly  noticed  because  its  great  elements 
are  subdued  into  harmony  with  the  eye,  and  but  little 
transcend  its  optic  qualities.  But  that  great  harmony 
feeds  the  broadness  of  a  universe. 

I  supposed   that  the  moral  sense  was  not  merely  a 


A    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH.  253 

contrivance  for  detecting  and  holding  on  to  goodness, 
but  that  the  divine  sympathy  must  repair  to  it.  But 
I  suggest  w^hether  that  does  not  follow  some  law,  in 
order  not  to  oppress  and  displace  our  moral  freedom. 
Does  God  find  it  necessary  to  be  minutely  curious 
about  our  private  thoughts  and  actions  ?  May  it  not 
appear  to  Him  that  the  health  and  development  of 
the  conscience  are  best  consulted  by  a  regard  for  the 
reserve  in  which  all  finite  thought  must  have  its  birth  ? 
The  conscience  can  do  its  own  watching,  and  chron- 
icle its  own  condition.  It  is  heaven's  moral  repre- 
sentative on  earth,  and  is  furnished  with  the  eternal 
prescriptions.  Every  time  that  a  heavenly  purpose 
breathes  across  these  laws  of  our  nature,  they  are 
reinvigorated.  Something  responds  to  our  best  mo- 
ments ;  and  there  is  refreshment,  confidence,  joy  in 
the  response.  No  asking  can  bring  it;  nothing  but 
the  excellence  itself.  All  the  sincere  and  burning 
hours  of  the  spirit  seem  to  drop  and  be  lost  from  this 
effulgence.  Thus  He  descends  to  us,  thus  He  rests 
upon  our  highest  points  ;  there  the  cloud  breaks  with 
voice  and  lightning,  and  the  drops  collect  in  the  old 
channels,  and  hurry  down  towards  the  commonest 
details  and  the  earthliest  places  of  our  life.  But 
having  thus  drifted  upon  our  mountain  top,  and  parted 
with  this  influence,  He  leaves  the  flooded  conscience 
to  trickle  into  the  street,  the  work-shop,  the  kitchen,  the 
wood-shed  and  factory,  to  deposit  the  precious  wash- 
ings of  an  inaccessible  sphere.  Thus,  long  after 
heaven  has  passed  on  above  us  our  life  is  all  saturated 
with  its  gifts. 

Do  we  consider  seriously    enough   what    it  is  that 


254 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


we  carry  about  with  us  in  this  self-registering  power 
of  conscience?  Indeed,  every  foculty  of  the  mind  is  a 
cell  where  gradual  increase  is  hived  up,  either  from 
sweet  or  poisonous  flowers  that  are  found  as  we  range 
over  the  whole  expanse  of  life.  Heaven  loves  the 
human  sweetness  that  is  stored  away  for  emergencies, 
but  is  it  curious  about  the  little  flights  and  circles 
which  we  make  in  gathering  it?  So  conscience,  or 
the  instinct  for  the  true,  the  healthy,  and  the  heavenly, 
guides  our  wanderings,  calls  every  faculty  ofl'  from 
base  pursuits,  tries  to  reject  what  hurts  us,  and  recom- 
mends what  will  make  us,  soul  and  body,  a  sweet 
savor.  And  it  records  the  results,  without  the  inter- 
vention of  higher  powers  ;  it  is  infallible,  it  can  make 
no  mistakes,  whether  we  are  awake  to  this  or  not. 
You  have  seen  the  tell-tales,  which  are  furnished  to 
various  machines  for  travelling,  creating  motive- 
power,  or  elaborating  products :  all  the  operations 
may  proceed  unconsciously  from  stage  to  stage,  yet, 
however  complicated,  at  the  end  of  the  journey  the 
register  yields  infallible  returns.  Our  own  souls  are 
the  final  exhibit  which  we  make  to  heaven.  God 
sees  us,  and  sees  the  whole  career,  and  comprehends 
at  once  its  most  insignificant  details,  —  thoughts  the 
most  fleeting,  motives  the  most  private,  desires  that 
were  abandoned  or  pursued,  —  when  we  bring  Him 
our  quality,  the  total  result  of  living.  All  the  drudgery 
is  in  it,  but  sifted,  as  the  miner  sifts  the  silt  of  moun- 
tain streams  :  God  knows  where  the  s:old  came  from 
as  it  lies  heavy  in  his  hand.  Sometimes  the  whole 
soul  swings  loose  from  house-keeping,  shopkeeping, 
pleading,  bargaining,  ditching  and  draining,  and  goes 


A    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH. 


255 


straight  ofi'  towards  the  invisible,  as  though  the  earth 
should  leave  its  orbit  from  love  of  the  sun.  Perhaps 
not  one  of  our  petty  gestures  has  attracted  heaven's 
attention,  but  it  bends  to  the  coming  of  a  whole  soul, 
and  kisses  its  kindred. 

Consider  what  a  dreadful  power  this  is  of  self-ac- 
cumulation. It  lays  up  within  us  vileness  as  well  as 
grace.  In  moments  of  temptation  we  say,  No  eye  sees 
me.  In  the  secrecy  of  our  thinking  we  imagine  that 
the  body  is  a  screen.  But  although  God  must  be  in- 
different to  omniscience,  in  a  minute  and  trivial  sense, 
we  are  the  betrayers  ;  we  ai"e  recorders  of  every  pulse 
and  breath.  Can  a  single  drop  of  blood  evade  the 
heart?  Can  a  single  vibration  help  transmitting  itself 
to  the  atmosphere.'*  Lift  your  hand  with  reverence 
to  your  head,  and  say,  Whatever  transpires  beneath 
this  roof  is  beyond  annihilation,  can  never  be  recalled  ; 
whatever  flies  through  these  windows  flies  not  back 
again.  Shut  out  the  moth  and  rust,  and  fling  wide 
open  only  to  clear  mornings  and  a  perfect  heaven. 

This  intuitive  capacity  of  ordinary  men,  and  its  lia- 
bility to  be  visited,  is  threatened  with  contempt  in  a 
country  where  men  estimate  each  other  so  largely  by 
their  power  to  succeed  in  various  undertakings.  The 
shrewdness  might  detect  itself  turning  a  cold  shoulder 
to  the  innocence.  The  savage  is  not  dispossessed  and 
driven  to  the  wall  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  :  he  walks 
in  Broadway,  daubs  on  the  war-paint  of  caucuses  and 
delivers  their  whoop,  and  follows  every  trail  that  leads 
from  Wall  Street  into  plunder.  He  is  a  man  of  busi- 
ness, and,  if  you  do  not  excite  him,  he  may  be  gathered 
to  his  fathers  guiltless  of  eating  the  hearts  of  his  vie- 


256  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

tims.  But  if  the  jnundice  of  the  gold-room  infect  his 
blood,  and  cast  a  sickly  glare  of  yellowness  over  the 
landscape,  he  will  no  longer  distinguish  the  natural 
hue  of  honor. 

A  German  has  written  a  fontastic  story  about  a 
whimsical  old  gentleman,  who,  in  contempt  for  the 
cutaneous  virtue  of  fiishionable  life,  palmed  off  in 
society  a  highly-civilized  chimpanzee  as  his  son-in-law. 
Every  thing  went  well  enough,  in  spite  of  some  minor 
reminiscences  of  the  jungle,  till  a  little  temptation,  too 
suggestive  of  the  home  of  his  youth  and  the  fresh  feel- 
ings of  his  unsophisticated  years,  tore  off  the  skilfully- 
adjusted  mask,  and  nothing  of  the  man  was  left  except 
the  properties  that  had  been  supplied  by  the  tailor. 
A  whole  street-full  of  gamblers  have  thus  been  noticed 
suddenly  to  strip  off  twenty  thousand  years  and  become 
naked  vindications  of  Mr.  Darwin's  orisfin  of  Man. 

When  the  spangles  on  a  garment  compensate  for  the 
mire  through  which  it  was  dragged  ;  when  success  just- 
ifies its  own  cheating  ;  when  the  blood  wrung  out  of 
somebody  drips  from  a  vulgar  escutcheon,  and  is  never 
wiped  away  so  long  as  the  crest  is  high,  its  dragon 
or  its  vulture  rampant,  and  the  whole  emblazonment 
fills  the  street, —  the  conscience  slinks  home  by  the 
alleys,  and  frets  because  it  has  lost  its  right  of  way. 
Its  desert  was  to  succeed,  as  well  as  the  shiftiness  that 
demoralizes  everybody  by  its  enormous  gains.  But 
this  smart  social  system  will  pass  into  anarchy  without 
an  obscure  sense  of  ours  that  integrity  is  the  founder 
and  preserver  of  States.  We  are  needed.  There  is 
not  a  rill,  wandering  through  quiet  places,  that  does 
not  eventually  temper   tlie  l3itter,  stormy  sea  with   its 


A    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH.  257 

sweet  waters.  And,  when  a  number  of  people  will 
draw  all  the  feeding-streams  of  their  privacy  from 
plain  conscience,  it  gathers  like  the  rolling  of  a  great 
clear  current  down  towards  the  ocean,  into  whose  tur- 
bid brine  it  shoots  with  impetuosity,  so  that  sea-faring 
men  shall  detect  with  surprise  the  sweetness  of  the 
hills,  dividing  and  refusing  to  mingle  with  the  tide.  A 
inan's  soul  may  make  a  very  faint  mark,  the  volume 
which  its  activity  propels  inay  appear  to  be  a  ridicu- 
lous trickle,  but,  if  it  be  clear  and  cool,  the  earth  thirsts 
for  it,  the  heavy  sea  is  waiting  to  be  well  tempered  by 
it,  —  all  nature  sighs  for  freshness,  and  lifts  up  its  face 
to  the  hills  whence  comes  its  help. 

These  blotches  of  half-barbarous  society  must  be 
touched  and  arrested  by  our  plain  yea  and  nay.  The 
aid  we  give  is  not  measured  by  the  insignificance  of  our 
mind,  but  by  its  singleness.  What  constructs  the  broad 
highway  of  solid  light  that  paves  ocean  toward  the 
rising  or  the  setting  sun.?  The  felicity  of  every  single 
drop  of  the  water  in  which  a  whole  sun  lies  mirrored : 
minute,  but  illuminated,  they  lead  towards  the  morn- 
ing, or  suggest  its  return.  What  a  laurel  of  glory  is  the 
thought  that  a  very  little  person  is  so  implicated  in  the 
success  of  his  country's  real  truth,  to  hold  it  in  a  pure 
form,  to  keep  it  undisturbed  by  the  passions  that  welter 
all  around  it,  to  fix  one  firm  spot  of  fidelity  and  to  stick 
by  it;  as  if  to  say,  "Though  the  whole  earth  go  adrift, 
though  double-dealing  prosper  and  scorn  me,  though 
the  darkness  of  barbarism  invade  all  my  neighborhood, 
covering  cities  and  people  as  waters  cover  the  sea's 
bottom,  —  here  I  stand,  to  hold  my  little  trembling 
jewel  and  permit  its  slight  ray  to  escape  me  !    '  So  shines 


25S  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

a  good  deed  in  a  naughty  world/  Come,  friend  and 
nei"-hbor,  and  hold  your  jewel  next  to  mine  till  the 
faint  beam  flashes ;  perhaps  a  word  will  go  forth,  Let 
there  be  light  I  and  these  little  spots  of  our  fidelity 
siiall  melt  together  into  the  irrepressible  radiance  of  a 
morning." 

When  we  feel  the  successive  shocks  which  the  em- 
bezzlers, defaulters,  gamblers,  over-reachers,  give  to 
the  general  confidence,  they  are  hints  to  our  neutrality 
that  nothing  will  restore  fiiith,  blunt  the  forger's  pen, 
break  the  tables  where  the  dice  of  speculation  play  with 
our  prosperity, —  nothing,  but  a  fresh  issue  of  the  con- 
science that  is  minted  in  a  million  innocencies.  That 
is  the  true  return  to  specie  payment,  and  the  arrest  of 
evils  which,  we  pretend,  are  tolerated  by  necessity. 

As  a  great  action,  performed  by  a  few  men  under 
grievous  disadvantages,  takes  root  somewhere  upon 
the  soil  of  the  planet,  and  after  many  generations  vin- 
dicates the  original  trial,  and  illustrates  the  forlorn 
faith  by  appearing  in  forms  of  generous  polities,  in 
disfi-anchised  conscience,  in  ameliorated  conditions  of 
the  oppressed,  so  shall  our  little  candle  throw  its  beams 
as  far  as  that.  It  is  a  great  action  to  keep  fiiith  high 
and  aggressive  in  a  period  when  the  people  wink  to 
each  other  applausively  at  hearing  of  an  admirable 
intrigue,  and  relish  the  stories  whose  point  is  some 
successful  artifice.  It  is  a  great  struggle,  —  founders  of 
States  never  equalled  it,  explorers  of  new  worlds  never 
went  so  far,  —  to  be  simple  when  duplicity  and  coarse- 
ness meet  with  toleration  ;  to  preserve  a  few  wants,  a 
few  plain  habits,  a  few  rational  and  manly  objects  of 
enterprise,  when  cities  go  mad  with  show  and  guilty 


A    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH.  259 

satisfactions.  If  a  few  drops  of  the  poison  find  their 
way  into  a  man's  high  vein,  it  is  a  great  thing  to  resist, 
to  purge  the  blood,  to  thrust  back  the  whole  terrible 
tendency,  to  wake,  flinging  the  period  off  as  a  night- 
mare.    This  is  the  function  of  a  Conscience  for  Truth. 

But  Truth  is  not  inclosed  by  the  fragrant  rose-hedges 
of  innocence.  They  are  planted,  rather,  as  retreats 
for  health  upon  its  broad  domain.  Conscience  is  sen- 
sitive to  the  truths  which  decide  a  person's  career, 
direct  him  towards  charities  and  causes,  foster  his  taste 
for  being  in  a  minority,  reduce  the  articles  of  his  the- 
ology till  a  pioneer's  pack  will  lift  them  easily  for  a 
day's  march,  at  the  end  of  which  he  divides  with  his 
comrades  rations  of  his  love  to  man.  Some  critics 
profess  that  Dante  has  put  the  young  man  whom 
Jesus  loved,  but  who  turned  away  sorrowfully,  into 
his  third  canto,  where  he  describes  seeing  the  shade 
of  him  who  from  cowardice  made  the  great  refusal.* 
However  that  may  be,  it  was  a  moment  when  con- 
science refused  itself:  the  whole  ardor  of  the  Truth 
hung  about  the  youth's  neck,  rushed  to  his  possible 
attainment,  loved  its  own  generous  implication  of 
identity  in  him,  longed  to  own  his  unsullied  heart  and 
turn  more  youth  into  the  pure  stream.  Was  ever  a 
man  so  flattered.^  There  is  no  man  who  is  7iot  so 
flattered. 

This  quality  of  being  loved  and  chosen  never  dies 
out  of  the  most  common  or  mercenary  life.  It  is  there, 
if  the  soul  is  there  :   it  is  liable  to  be  summoned,  it  can 

*  "  E  vidi  rombra  di  colui 
Che  fece  per  viltate  il  gran  rifiuto." 

Inferno,  III.  59,  60. 


26o  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

be  empanelled  for  the  great  trials  of  Truth.  If  the 
soul  is  not  tliere,  —  in  other  words,  if  we  suppose  that 
habits  can  entirely  eat  away  the  columns  of  conscience 
and  hope,  and  bring  down  the  personality  which  they 
sustain  into  an  irretrievable  ruin,  —  then  there  may  be 
nothing  left  to  love  ;  but  that  is  because  there  is  noth- 
ing left  to  live.  It  is  a  sponging  out  of  the  thinking 
and  emotional  characters.  Truth  never  offers  con- 
scious love  to  the  crystal  or  the  clod.  Whatever  is 
once  desired  by  the  Creator  must  be  always  liable 
to  desire,  for  it  is  the  invitation  of  one  who  is  not 
afflicted  by  the  caprices  of  earthly  love.  It  is  as  essen- 
tial that  God's  tendency  to  love  us  and  desire  us  should 
be  infinite  as  that  his  power  should  be,  or  his  skill,  or 
his  justice.  When  animated  nature,  struggling  up 
through  its  various  degrees  of  intelligence,  reaches  a 
point  where  God,  not  content  with  propagating  all  the 
changeless  types  of  animals,  or  with  developing  one 
type  from  another,  shows  a  desire  to  recreate,  to  de- 
velop freedom  out  of  matter,  to  reform  intelligence, 
to  lift  it  up  to  accountability,  to  bring  out  its  latent 
truths,  to  love  and  long  for  its  obedience,  Nature  has 
reached  the  point  of  a  rational  and  personal  man, 
whom  God  will  no  more  suffer  to  slip  from  his  infinite 
expectation  of  owning,  of  having  the  whole  soul  of, 
sooner  or  later,  than  he  will  suffer  the  rose  to  slip  from 
his  sense  of  beauty,  the  planet  from  his  sense  of  order. 
And  to  the  man  who  turns  away  sorrowfully  or  defi- 
antly, and  makes  the  heart  of  his  youth  hard  against 
the  arrowy  smile,  the  law  of  his  structure  will  dispense 
as  much  pain,  sooner  or  later,  as  will  be  salutary  to 
break  up  his  reserve.     Can  a  finite  being,  by  sinning, 


A    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH.  261 

ever  make  himself  impenetrable  to  an  infinite  being? 
The  thou2:ht  is  inconceivable.  We  cannot  use  ordi- 
nary  language,  if  we  think  so  :  all  words  that  express 
the  relations  of  created  things  to  creating  power  are 
turned  adrift,  without  a  purpose.  For  such  a  theory 
of  the '  universe  a  new  language  must  be  invented ; 
but  it  must  be  one  that  man  cannot  speak.  For  the 
breath  of  God  in  man  gathers  upon  his  lips  in  words 
of  spontaneous  reply  to  God's  desire. 

What  is  the  whole  of  our  life  but  an  appeal  which 
Heaven  makes  to  us  for  our  cooperation  with  its  pur- 
pose ?  And  what  better  way  is  there  to  discover  what 
the  purpose  is,  than  to  take  notice  of  the  appeals? 
Every  being  discovers  his  own  object  in  life  by  taking 
heed  to  the  solicitations  which  are  made  for  his  time, 
his  gift,  his  influence,  his  physical  or  mental  expendi- 
ture. Not  by  consulting  bodies  of  divinity  that  pre- 
tend to  explain  God's  objects  in  creating  us,  not  by 
reading  a  class  of  books  that  are  devoted  to  the  narrow 
purpose  of  speaking  well  of  God,  making  a  catalogue 
of  hrs  attributes,  or  showing  how  Jesus  manifested 
him,  but  by  taking  at  first  hand  from  God  himself  his 
orders,  expressed  to  us  as  they  are  so  explicitly  in  the 
next  thing  that  we  see  must  be  done,  whether  we  are 
charmed  with  the  thing  or  not.  But,  in  depending 
upon  our  cooperation,  heaven  has  not  forgotten  to  make 
something  in  its  appeals  to  us  attractive  :  if  not  the 
thing  itself,  then  the  sense  of  sacrificing  attractiveness 
for  its  service  ;  the  very  dislike  to  do  the  thing  has  its 
attractions  to  a  human  soul.  Its  sorrowful  turning 
away  is  an  intimation,  to  itself  that  something  truly 
noble  just  looked  at  it  in  passing. 


262  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

We  have  not  a  season  from  youth  to  age  that  is  not 
filled  with  these  expressive  hints  that  we  belong  to  a 
spiritual  order  of  creatures,  and  must  do  a  spiritual 
work.  But  in  youth,  especiaUy,  when  the  immature 
mind  is  clamorous  to  find  its  proper  growth  in  its 
appropriate  em2olo3^ment,  the  soul  is  besieged  as 
though  it  were  the  door  at  which  some  largess  was 
dispensing :  there  is  the  turmoil  and  pressure  of  a 
crowd ;  there  is  annoyance,  uncertainty  of  claim.  It 
is  the  greatness  of  the  Infinite  before  these  avenues 
that  communicate  with  human  life.  Conditions  of  the 
body,  temperaments,  the  disfavor  of  circumstances, 
sometimes  increase  the  embarrassment  to  the  point  of 
mental  distress,  and  worry  of  the  conscience.  But  it 
is  not  long  before  the  prominent  suitor  emerges  from 
the  crowd,  and,  pressing  a  claim  that  is  well  founded 
in  our  own  nature,  urges  upon  us  our  own  adaptation, 
fixing  us  with  a  glance  of  personal  love.  Sometimes 
the  soul  finds  its  kindred  purpose  without  hesitation, 
or  a  moment  of  internal  pain,  as  in  water  face  answers 
to  face,  and  the  work  of  life  is  cheerfully  begun.  No 
man  is  ever  left  so  poor  in  opportunities  of  serving 
God  that  he  does  not  see  the  face  of  some  truth  as  it 
passes  by  his  place  of  business  and  invites  him  out 
upon  God's  highway.  It  is  some  occasion  for  pri- 
vate, family  devotedness,  some  unpopular  cause, 
some  scouted  aspect  of  divine  things,  some  call  of 
the  country  and  of  humanity,  —  it  is  sincerity  and 
personal  surrender  in  some  direction.  It  says,  Take 
up  tliat  sword  —  lift  up  that  cross  —  wield  that  pen  — 
feed  that  mouth  —  close  that  wound  —  bind  up  that 
broken  heart  —  pour   that  love  out  of  the  window  — 


A    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH.  263 

let  that  uncomfortable  message  through  the  door ; 
behold,  I  stand  and  knock  ;  the  sound  is  harsh,  but 
open,  and  see  my  handsome  face,  and  bid  me  in  with 

joy- 

What  claim  have  we  to  be  selected  by  Truth?  It  is 
because  it  sees  something  in  us  that  is  akin  to  itself. 
It  is  the  Infinite  jDerceiving  itself  in  the  mirror  of  hu- 
man intelligence.  What  a  spotless  depth  youth  is  to 
receive  the  reflection  of  that  face  !  Before  a  single 
gale  of  passion  roughens  and  huddles  all  the  features. 
Before  egotism  begins  to  look  for  its  own  face  there, 
and  is  discontented  at  the  intrusion  of  another  and  a 
mightier  countenance  that  must  and  will  look  also, 
having  no  other  surface  upon  which  it  can  be  seen. 
We  are  called  because  we  can  listen  and  comprehend 
the  voice :  we  hear  it  as  a  straying  child  hears  the 
mother's  voice,  that  goes  round  through  the  bewilder- 
ment, groping  and  searching  for  the  ears  so  well 
attuned  by  nature  to  thrill  at  the  dear  summons  of 
deliverance.  When  your  nearest  of  kin  comes  call- 
ing, you  fling  the  closed  casement  open,  and  lean  out 
with  answering  smile  :  and  if  fortunate  vines  cluster 
and  blossom  round  your  life,  you  break  off"  the  rose 
and  throw  it  down,  the  gage  of  your  fine  challenge, 
then  descend  to  meet  it  and  redeem  your  pledge. 
Noble  and  uplifting  moments  of  life,  when  imperish- 
able love  solicits  you,  and  some  truth  or  duty  within 
you  breaks  through  all  constraints  and  rushes  into 
God's  open  day  to  claim  affinity  with  truth  !  Then  is 
the  moment  to  return  love  and  to  be  loved,  and  to 
build  the  soul's  life  upon  happiness  for  ever. 

How  large  a  part  of  human  pathos   turns  upon  the 


264  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

common  circumstance  that  the  soul  will  not  recognize 
its  next  of  kin,  rejects  it,  under  the  dominion  of  some 
prepossession,  prefers  some  passing  fanc}-,  shrinks 
from  the  entire  confidence  and  -devotedness  that  it  will 
have  before  it  wholly  loves  !  This  is  historj^'s  contin- 
ual replacing  upon  the  stage  of  old  tragedies,  by  new 
ones  drawn  from  the  same  old  theme.  To  be  a  lost 
leader  is  bad  :  to  desert  a  cause  once  embraced,  how 
full  of  sorrow  !  But  to  refuse  when  you  are  tempted 
by  Truth,  and  to  turn  away  sorrowfully,  perhaps  even 
coweringly,  when  some  majestic  look  falls  on  you,  to 
deny  your  own  heart  to  the  excellence  of  thinking  or 
doing  that  pleads  with  it,  and  seeks  to  swallow  up  all 
its  hesitation  in  avowal  and  plighted  faith  and  bliss- 
ful surrender,  to  be  startled  at  the  sight  of  your  soul's 
own  blood  mantling  in  the  face  of  your  soul's  own 
truth  that  was  yours  from  the  foundation  of  the  world, 
yours  by  divine  fore-ordination,  to  be  not  brave  enough 
even  to  try  to  bid  your  own  independence,  your  ow^n 
life's  heroism  welcome  :  afraid  of  it,  and  running  to 
shelter,  into  a  neighbor's  tenement,  into  the  arms  of 
old  opinions,  into  the  comfortableness  of  old  routines, 
glad  to  get  out  of  the  sky  into  a  frame-house,  —  surely, 
there  is  sadness  in  this,  and  the  scenes  of  your  tragedy, 
though  no  man  is  spectator,  and  no  pen  records  them, 
are  burnt  into  your  soul  by  the  stamp  of  your  sorrow, 
and  may  there  be  read  at  any  time  by  God. 

And  how  diflierent  this  tragedy  is  from  that  which  the 
sons  of  God  perform  at  the  bidding  of  earnest  expect- 
ation !  The  whole  creation  groans  and  travails  with 
that :  but  the  pain  in  it  is  that  kind  which  belongs  to 
the  waiting  for  some  manifestation,  not  the  kind  which 


A    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH.  265 

agonizes  in  dread  of  manifestation,  in  abject  dislike 
of  the  tears  which  Truth  inust  shed.  As  different  as 
the  tragedies  of  cowards  are  from  the  tragedies  of 
brave  men ;  as  different  as  the  sneaking  pallor  of 
murder  is  from  the  blush  of  battle.  There  is  a  mo- 
ment in  the  career  of  every  person  when  the  choice  is 
clearly  given  to  him  between  the  pain  which  kills  and 
the  pain  which  saves :  he  knows,  once  at  least,  that 
something  loves  him,  and  he  can  choose  between  the 
trial  of  following  true  love  and  the  catastrophe  of  de- 
serting it.  Every  boy  must  come  to  this,  rude,  indiffer- 
ent, coarse-grained  as  he  may  seem  to  be,  fit  only  for 
giving  and  receiving  blows  of  fate  :  the  handsome  face 
of  some  occasion  will  transfix  him.  Every  girl  must 
come  to  this,  however  fleeting,  shallow,  and  trivial  her 
ways  of  life  may  be,  herself  prepossessed  with  unsub- 
stantial motives,  beset  with  vanities,  launching  her 
hours,  as  one  lets  bubbles  from  a  pipe,  to  mark  the 
frail  iris  that  the  sun  will  paint  for  her  ere  they  flatten. 
Manly,  well-proportioned,  exacting,  thrilling  Duty  will 
claim  her  heart  at  last ;  some  face  of  Truth  will  point 
to  its  crown  of  thorns  and  woo  her  pity ;  some  bold 
eye,  like  a  heaven  full  of  daylight,  will  challenge  her 
gaze  till  it  droops  in  thankful  acquiescence.  There  is 
the  God  within  us,  and  the  God  without :  they  twain 
must  become  one  flesh.  Father  and  mother  of  the 
old  life  must  be  continually  deserted  for  the  marriages 
of  the  soul. 

How  can  we  ever  be  really  sure  that  something 
divine  invites  us  ?  It  is  important  to  consider  if  there  be 
any  way  of  distinguishing  between  one's  conceit,  one's 
prejudice,  one's  audacity,  and  a  plain  call  to  believe  a 

12 


266  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

thing,  to  act  a  thing  ;  between  one's  timidity  and  a  clear 
hint  to  avoid  a  thing.  Our  preferences  for  our  own 
notions  and  habits  may  easily  appear  to  us  plain  calls. 
Our  conservative  tendency  to  hold  on  to  a  mode  of  life, 
a  style  of  faith,  a  way  of  thinking,  is  one  of  the  most 
common  things  which  deceive  us.  We  suppose  we  are 
doing  God's  will  when  we  do  what  we  have  done  before. 
The  duty  which  unsettles  that,  cannot  be  of  God,  we 
think.  Nothing  is  easier  than  to  mistake  our  dread 
of  society,  our  personal  implication  with  dear  friends 
and  relatives,  for  a  spiritual  call  to  remain  where  we 
are,  to  think  the  old  thoughts,  to  repeat  the  old  phrase- 
ology of  opinions  into  which  we  have  grown  comfort- 
ably, as  into  coats,  to  keep  up  the  ordinary  round  that 
we  have  so  often  proved  to  be  excellent  and  pleasant. 
And  what  disguises  selfish  calculation  will  borrow,  so 
that  our  hankering  for  something  will  appear  like  a 
loving  for  something,  particularly  when  all  the  grosser 
part  of  our  nature  is  suborned  to  give  false  testimony 
on  this  point ;  so  that,  for  instance,  our  desire  for 
admiration  may  appear  like  a  real  love  for  following 
something  that  gets  this  admiration,  and  things,  good 
in  themselves,  may  be  bought  by  us,  whole  slave- 
coffles  of  them,  and  driven  afield  to  raise  for  us  con- 
sideration. How  can  the  divine  be  distinguished  from 
the  common  and  unclean  ! 

Every  person  is  provided  with  his  ow^n  test  of  this 
thing ;  he  can  go  into  the  gold-bearing  regions  of  God 
and  make  his  own  assay.  Can  a  miner  go  to  Colo- 
rado and  at  once  separate  the  ore  from  slag  and  refuse, 
and  cannot  the  soul  discern  and  reject  the  low  sur- 
roundings of  Truth  ?    Are  the  perishable  senses  more 


A    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH.  267 

trustworthy  than  the  immortal  conscience?  Has  Truth 
been  made  lovable  by  us,  and  are  we  yet  at  a  loss  to 
know  what  truth  to  love?  The  soul  settles  this  matter 
for  itself,  sometimes  with  joy,  sometimes  with  sor- 
row :  both  feelings  testify  that  a  competent  judge  is  at 
hand. 

And  see  how  simple  the  way  is.  Whatever  looks 
on  us  and  loves  us  does  so  by  virtue  of  the  kindred 
quality  in  ourselves.  Then  we  may  know  that  it  is 
genuine  by  the  way  it  pleads  to  be  brought  to  our 
notice.  And  it  is  a  pleading  that  offers  disquiet  rather 
than  content,  and  invites  us  into  a  transitional  state, 
where  we  often  experience  conflicting  emotions,  be- 
cause it  is  a  transforming,  regenerating  love.  It  does 
not  know  what  placidity  is.  It  is  a  very  exacting  love, 
and  wails  unless  it  can  have  a  whole,  unmortgaged 
heart.  It  solicits  us  with  the  conscious  pride  of  equal- 
ity. Your  dog  may  be  fed  with  bones  beneath  your 
table  ;  if  you  had  a  slave  he  might  give  you  pleasure 
by  his  cringing :  any  common  gratification  may  take 
the  toll  you  throw  ;  but  the  sweet  sternness  of  your 
v\^ife  overpowers  you  to  give  the  freedom  of  your  per- 
son into  the  keeping  of  a  perfect  freedom.  We  may 
know  when  it  is  the  Truth  that  is  waiting  for  us  by 
the  feeling  of  high  kinship,  and  we  see  how  different 
it  is  from  a  feeling  of  low  acquaintanceship.  The 
soul  knows  it  in  a  breath.  It  can  never  mistake  the 
irresistible  attraction  which  comes  to  sweep  our  greater 
will  away  in  spite  of  our  petty  wills ;  for  it  is  an 
invitation  to  the  soul  to  fall  into  line  with  all  the  other 
worlds  of  God,  and  to  sing  the  song  of  the  morning 
stars  in  that  great  procession. 


2(^S  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

We  may  distinguish  reluctance  to  follow  Truth  from 
a  dread  lest  we  follow  Error,  in  this,  that  the  Truth 
draws  while  it  seems  to  repel.  The  repulsion  is  only 
our  own  tardiness.  The  Truth  was  punctual :  we 
were  not  quite  up  to  time.  If  the  thing  that  loves  us 
be  truly  lovable,  it  penetrates  our  first  alarms  with  a 
feeling  of  sublimity,  such  as  arises  in  the  presence  of 
danger,  and  that  which  is  excited  by  heroism  putting 
itself  in  peril  to  serve  some  great  purpose  of  rescue. 
There  is  always  an  element  that  tries  the  nerves,  that 
takes  away  the  breath,  that  bids  the  pulse  bound  wildly 
as  the  new  task  is  assumed.  This  enlarges  the  whole 
organization ;  more  blood  is  made,  more  morbid 
muscle  is  repaired  ;  the  gifts  of  the  soul  repay  all  its 
first  tremors  by  expansion,  and  at  last  it  serenely  weds 
the  Truth  that  seemed  to  court  so  roughly.  It  was 
only  seeming :  we  were  taken  by  surprise,  we  were 
not  expecting  to  be  so  frankly  summoned.  And  yet  it 
is  our  own  flesh  and  blood  that  opens  this  wooing 
with  the  words  that  startle  :  Let  the  dead  bury  the 
dead  :  leave  all  and  follow  me  —  the  old  house,  the 
old  lands,  the  old  estate  —  I  settle  a  hundred  fold  por- 
tion "upon  your  fidelity. 

We  may  know  that  it  is  a  truth  which  has  got 
audience  of  us,  and  not  our  own  conceits  and  preju- 
dices, when  it  dislodges  us  and  sends  us  elsewhere, 
when  we  are  detailed  for  duties,  when  our  easy  quar- 
ters are  beaten  up,  and  we  have  to  rough  it  in  the 
field,  when  we  are  selected  for  the  forlorn  hope, 
when  we  arc  ordered  to  the  front.  Pride  of  opinion, 
love  of  comfort,  a  desire  to  keep  on  good  terms  with 
our  circle,  these  arc  never  haunted  with  the  enterprise 


A.    CONSCIENCE    FOR    TRUTH.  269 

to  colonize  a  virgin  soil  and  plant  a  flag  there.  But 
Truth,  in  every  one  of  her  stages,  longs  to  leave  some 
things  behind :  the  truth  of  morals  inspires  us  to 
abandon  the  old  habitat  of  our  vices,  the  truth  of  relig- 
ion drags  us  out  of  our  doctrinal  burrows  to  explore, 
to  take  possession.  God  cannot  be  exhausted.  He 
has  ever  new  things  for  new  spirits,  who  become  the 
most  religious  when  they  submit  to  this  onward  tend- 
ency, and  break  away  in  pursuit  of  the  infinite  mys- 
tery. It  hails  us  in  the  van.  Have  you  never  heard 
its  voice,  paying  men  that  most  exquisite  of  flatteries, 
by  asking  for  their  hearts?  We  cannot  conceal  our 
satisfaction,  but  break  into  smiles  and  adoring  gest- 
ures, and  bend  towards  that  invitation  as  the  Earth 
towards  its  Sun. 


XI. 

CONSTANCY  TO   AN   IDEAL. 

THE  Ideal  is  not  a  phrase  in  high  repute  among 
practical  people,  who  suspect  it  of  excusing  some 
immediate  incapacity,  like  that  which  would  recom- 
mend clouds  to  the  selectmen  for  a  new  style  of  pave- 
ment, or  a  balloon's  aimless  whirling  instead  of  some 
direct  and  planted  way  of  locomotion.  There  may  be  an 
upper  westward  current ;  but  in  the  mean  time  the  rail 
gets  over  the  ground  by  all  the  points  of  the  compass. 
The  Ideal  will  possibly  carry  a  person  off  by  some 
aerial  route  to  Paris  ;  but  if  he  would  return  to  Boston 
he  must  alight.  This  shrewdness  is  furthered,  too,  by 
the  feeling  that  the  phrase  is  chiefly  the  property  of 
poets,  who  are  exercised  only  in  expression,  and  can- 
not be  counted  on  for  work.  The  influence  which 
imaginative  expression  exerts  upon  a  people  is  under- 
valued because  it  does  not  enrich  the  instant,  but  passes 
into  the  temperament  by  slow  absorption,  and  appears 
at  length  in  quality.  Men  cannot  wait  for  that.  There 
is  work  on  hand  that  is  to  be  done  with  what  quality 
exists,  or  not  at  all.  A  man  of  business  cannot  see 
that  the  poem  which  he  read  over  night  affected, 
unless  to  perturb,  his  next  day's  operations.     He  will 


CONSTANCY    TO    AN    IDEAL.  2*Jl 

do  better  with  his  leisure  next  time  by  getting  well 
posted  from  the  commercial  columns.  He  rises  more 
buoyantly  upon  stocks :  the  pathos  that  wrings  his 
heart  is  when  they  fall,  and  his  streamers  are  no 
longer  gaily  afloat.  The  expression  of  music  and  art 
serves  him  only  for  enjoyment,  and  he  has  this  advan- 
tage over  the  idealist  that  nobody  can  calculate  the 
subtile  orbit  of  influence,  nor  show  how  the  song  and 
symphony  make  blood.  It  is  only  by  accident  if  one 
or  two  men  in  a  generation  have  their  heart  or  stomach 
so  exposed  that  the  physicians  can  observe  its  func- 
tion. But  if  every  brain  \vere  unroofed,  there  is  no 
Asmodeus  skilled  to  detect  tones  and  colors  jostling  its 
atoms  into  more  spiritual  companionship.  One  must 
be  a  part  of  the  violin's  gram  to  know  how  the  vibra- 
tions of  the  strings  record  themselves  in  the  dead 
wood  of  the  instrument :  not  dead,  indeed,  if  it  is 
capable  of  assimilating  rhythm. 

But  there  are  two  kinds  of  the  Ideal :  one  tends 
toward  expression,  the  other  animates  all  kinds  of 
labor,  and  secures  results.  When  a  practical  man 
says  that  he  can  do  without  the  Ideal,  he  does  not 
understand  his  own  business.  When  a  prosaic  moral- 
ist says  the  same,  and  takes  a  contract  to  reform  or  to 
establish,  he  throws  up  the  material  that  he  must  work 
in.  It  is  intangible,  but  has  a  pressure  of  so  many 
pounds  to  the  inch,  and  he  stands  drenched  in  it  while 
he  pretends  he  does  not  breathe. 

There  is  some  ideal  stimulus  in  every  kind  of  work, 
none  the  less  definite  because  the  worker  appears  to 
be  unconscious  of  it.  A  gang  of  men  with  sledge- 
hammers go  fastening  ties  westward  toward  a  Golden 


272 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


Gate.  There  is  expectation  in  every  stroke :  not  a 
man  of  them  but  proposes  to  arrive  somewhere  by 
that  track  on  which  he  is  hammering.  Family  bread, 
aflection,  independence,  enkir^ement :  these  invisible 
yearnings  give  the  gold-glimmer  to  his  Sacramento. 
He  is  an  idealist  while  he  is  faithful  to  his  work.  And 
the  country  which  hires  his  labor,  and  affects  only  to 
be  wanting  to  reach  the  Pacific  thereby,  is  stimulated 
by  more  than  all  the  spices  of  the  Orient.  There  is 
no  such  ideality  on  earth  as  that  which  compels  a 
nation  to  expand  all  its  powers  of  intelligence,  and  to 
reach  eventually  the  Rights  of  Man. 

Something  is  to  be  overcome,  wherever  the  ideal 
road  is  travelled.  The  effort  may  be  stamped  with 
the  coarsest  realism  ;  but  the  ideality  is  in  the  effort. 
We  do  not  know  the  outlets  of  every  thing  that  we 
perform,  nor  the  subtile  connection  between  our  sim- 
plest acts  and  our  loftiest  attainments.  It  sometimes 
seems  a  great  way  from  the  body  to  the  soul ;  but  a 
very  slight  deed  may  bridge  over  the  ab3^ss  of  that 
ocular  deception.  The  soul  is  waiting  close  at  hand 
to  receive  the  benefit  of  our  least  integrity.  So  that 
very  ordinary  things  may  be  the  essentials  to  secure 
our  spiritual  advance :  begrimed  and  sturdy  engineers 
who  rapidly  pontoon  for  us  a  formidable-looking  cur- 
rent, and  let  us  transport  our  whole  splendid  equip- 
ment to  the  opposite  shore.  The  Indian  knows  that  a 
buffalo  trail  will  take  him  surest  to  water.  The  Amer- 
ican condescends  to  follow  the  Indian,  and  his  cities 
rise  opposite  to  ferries  and  at  the  confluences  of 
streams.  Then  at  length  the  buffalo  pilots  thither  the 
silent  steps  of  Religion  and  Liberty. 


CONSTANCY    TO    AN    IDEAL.  2^3 

When  Frederick  the  Great  said  he  always  noticed 
that  Providence  favored  the  heaviest  battaHon,  he  only 
stated  in  a  sarcasm  what  God  in  history  states  relig- 
iously :  that  he  is  on  the  side  of  valor,  foresight,  self- 
control,  wheresoever  and  on  whatsoever  objects  tliese 
great  qualities  of  an  overcoming  man  are  exercised. 
God,  having  no  human  pride,  does  not  regard  the 
nature  of  the  object,  but  its  intrinsic  difficulties  and 
its  drift  towards  some  beauty.  An  ideal  object  is  one, 
however  material,  that  gives  the  w^orld  a  whole-souled 
man.  And  it  is  on  this  principle  that  natural  forces 
seem  to  have  selected  their  men  and  nations  throusfh 
the  whole  of  history.  It  is  the  forecasting  that  moulds 
and  reconstructs  a  raw  popular  material,  till  it  is  able 
to  occupy,  or  to  create,  some  important  position,  to 
assert  a  truth,  to  breast  a  flood  of  tyranny,  to  be  caught 
in  some  way  by  the  drift  and  amplitude  of  the  divine 
order.  If  people  have  settled  in  spots  towards  which 
the  streams  of  the  past  converge  in  order  to  find  the 
outlet  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  or  if  their  ethical 
quality  slowly  selects  spots  that  invite  either  the  friend- 
ship or  hostility  of  reigning  ideas,  and  suggest  rude 
engineering  to  arrange  a  battle-field,  they  are  certain 
to  be  subjected  to  the  training  which  shall  best  pre- 
pare them  for  their  great  eftbrt.  This  training  con- 
sists in  overcoming  something,  no  matter  how  physical, 
or  how  remote  in  character  from  the  future  issue. 

I  know  of  nothing,  for  example,  more  striking, 
than  the  way  in  which  the  Dutch  people  w^ere  pre- 
pared to  maintain  liberty  of  thought  and  worship. 
A  poor  Frisian  race  was  selected,  and  kept  for  cen- 
turies up  to  its  knees  in  the  marshes  through  which 

12* 


274 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


the  Rhine  emptied  and  lost  itself.  Here  it  lived  in 
continual  conflict  with  the  Northern  Ocean,  forced 
literally  to  hold  the  tide  at  arm's  length,  while  a  few 
acres  of  dry  land  might  yield  a  scanty  subsistence. 
Here  circumstance  kept  them,  half  submerged,  till, 
instead  of  obeying  a  natural  impulse  to  emigrate  to 
solid  and  more  congenial  land,  they  acquired  a  liking 
for  their  amphibious  position.  The  struggle  piqued 
them  into  staying  and  seeing  it  out.  For  centuries 
they  appeared  to  be  doing  nothing  but  building  and 
repairing  dykes,  when  really  they  were  constructing  a 
national  will  and  persistency  which  was  a  dyke  for 
tyranny  to  lash  in  vain.  By  keeping  out  the  water 
they  trained  themselves  to  keep  out  the  more  insidi- 
ous tide  of  bigotry  and  spiritual  death.  What  a 
homely  and  inglorious  school  for  a  great  Republic, 
that  taught  her  how  to  watch  patiently  by  tending 
dykes  and  ditches,  how  to  close  a  breach  against  ruin 
by  standing  with  succor  in  the  mid-tide  when  the 
sea-wall  crumbled,  how  to  convert  almost  continual 
defeat  into  victory,  by  keeping  hold  of  a  drowned 
position,  cultivating  acres  that  had  just  been  drenched 
with  salt,  flowing  back  again  upon  depopulated  dis- 
tricts and  holding  the  old  line  against  the  sea !  All 
these  stubborn  traits  appeared  afterward  cloUied  in 
noble  forms  of  moral  and  mental  life  :  still  there  w^as 
the  old  breakwater  running^  throusrh  the  national 
temper,  and  the  Will  of  the  people  was  like  one  of 
the  ancestral  Frisians,  who  could  stand  in  a  flood  all 
day  and  not  be  chilled.  The  wisdom  was  vindicated 
which  compelled  them  first  to  make  a  soil  for  ideal 
liberty  to  flourish  in.     And  as   nations  are  prepared 


CONSTANCY   TO    AN    IDEAL.  275 

for  great  destinies,  so  are  men  :  the  constitution  must 
catch  free  and  vigorous  movements  in  some  mode  of 
life  fatal  to  indolence  and  vulgarity,  the  Will  must  be 
roused  and  learn  how  to  handle  the  helm,  no  matter 
how  rude  the  objects  of  the  voyage  are. 

The  lav^  upon  which  this  principle  rests  is  a  very 
simple  one.  As  you  would  never  suspect  the  force 
of  water  till  it  breaks  against  something,  so  human 
volition  and  freedom  never  exist  except  in  the  act  of 
overcoming.  Before  that  moment  they  only  remain 
as  a  condition  of  the  mind  which  may  be  roused  to 
action.  What  a  difference  between  the  sluggish  level 
of  a  summer  sea,  with  no  more  strength  and  depth, 
apparently,  than  to  run  up  and  lap  the  land,  and  the 
same  surface  when  it  seems  to  roll  with  a  succession 
of  deliberate,  overpowering  purposes,  betraying  what 
a  depth  it  has  to  plough  upon  and  yet  not  plough  to 
the  bottom,  as  it  lifts  and  towers  against  some  barrier 
put  there  to  express  its  might !  In  the  act  of  striking, 
the  graceful  and  voluptuous  roll  is  changed  to  power. 
Without  an  obstacle  for  the  growing  billow  to  tend 
towards,  it  would  pass  unesti mated  across  the  surface. 
After  once  seeing  how  it  can  strike  and  shatter,  the 
free  wave  has  more  weight  to  the  observer.  So  a 
man  has  a  great,  silent,  heaving  element  of  volition, 
but  it  never  develops  energy  till  it  touches  something : 
then,  if  it  singles  out  an  obstacle  to  overcome,  it  carries 
the  whole  nature  along  against  it.  For  the  Will  is  the 
directing  impulse  of  all  the  gifts  and  tendencies  a  man 
possesses  ;  every  sweep  of  it  is  backed  by  the  whole 
deep  behind :  when  it  strikes,  action  and  reaction  are 
developed,  the  whole  nature  is  thrown  into  a  healthy 


2^6  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

ferment,  and  every  power  Is  enlisted  to  make  the 
overcoming  powder  available.  A  man  cannot  come 
out  of  a  real  conflict  without  feeling  an  exhilaration 
of  his  whole  mind  and  heart.  ,He  leaps  all  over,  like  a 
sea  full  of  billows.  He  has  asserted  his  Individuality, 
and  has  become  a  man  among  men.  So  the  thrill  of 
exercise  benefits  the  blood  as  well  as  the  muscles,  and 
the  nei'ves  as  well  as  the  blood.  And,  above  all,  the 
consciousness  of  one  victory  surprises  all  the  powers 
into  making  attempts  of  their  own  to  taste  the  same 
feeling  of  success. 

There  Is  no  real  diflerence  in  all  the  labor  which 
is  performed  between  the  moiling  of  the  house- 
drudge  up  to  the  combining,  choiring  evolutions  of 
the  poet's  brain.  Constancy,  everywhere  the  same, 
like  the  one  nutritious  principle  In  various  kinds  of 
food,  is  the  element  which  makes  all  w^ork  substan- 
tially the  same.  And,  like  food  Itself,  how  work 
appears  in  an  infinity  of  forms,  on  difterent  surfaces, 
on  difterent  soils  In  the  same  surfi\ce,  growing  up  Into 
diverse  colors.  And  yet  in  all  the  principle  Is  identi- 
cal. As  by  chemistry  we  resolve  every  edible  thing, 
from  the  root  painfully  torn  up  by  the  savage  to  the 
wheat  that  falls  gracefully  before  the  reaper,  and  the 
grape  that  is  plucked  with  songs,  into  the  same  ele- 
ments of  nourishment  suited  to  the  unvarying  economy 
of  the  human  frame  :  so  we  may  suppose  that  all  the 
labor  of  human  hands  and  brains,  from  the  stitching  of 
the  overworked  and  drooping  seamstress  up  to  the  slow 
threading  of  the  logician's  thought,  from  the  monoto- 
nous crack  of  the  teamster's  whip  up  to  the  telling 
succession    of    tlie    orator's    great   periods,    from    the 


CONSTANCY    TO    AN    IDEAL.  277 

ends  of  the  fingers  to  the  heads  of  the  nerves,  is  re- 
solved by  the  spiritual  chemistry  of  the  Creator  into 
simplicity  and  elemental  identity. 

The  poets  and  men  of  expression  have  not,  then, 
monopolized  the  Ideal.  We  must  be  poetical  enough 
to  detect  It  in  the  moral  uses  of  the  ordinary  life  we 
lead,  that  Is  so  pathetic  with  the  struggles  of  constancy 
against  physical  and  mental  circumstances.  No 
matter  how  sensitive  a  young  person's  heart  may  be, 
like  a  bare  nerve  in  the  weather,  flattered  by  the  soft 
touch  of  music  and  colors,  pared  into  gracious  action 
by  the  chisel  that  builds  the  statue's  symmetry, 
twitched  by  the  finger  of  tragedy  till  the  fount  of  tears 
is  opened,  —  his  ideal  life  does  not  begin  till  he  turns 
away  from  these  to  take  up  his  own  instrument  of 
work,  to  chip  a  conscience  out  of  school-keeping, 
type-setting,  engineering,  cooking  and  house-work,  to 
quarry  some  vital  activity  of  a  free  people.  Because 
he  himself  is  to  become  a  poem,  fairer  than  any  that 
was  ever  written,  by  overcoming  indolence  and  a  bad 
disposition.  In  favor  of  some  immediate  exigency. 
That  is  the  story  of  his  siege  of  Troy,  his  wandering 
of  Ulysses,  his  Paradise  regained.  The  Ideal  of  his 
constancy  Is  the  moral  sense  which  some  personal 
deficiency  or  poverty  inflames,  till  It  becoms  his  pillar 
of  fire  in  the  wilderness.  It  does  not  shape  him  so 
much  to  remember  the  Odyssey,  as  it  does  to  tie  him- 
self to  his  own  mast  and  sail  past  the  Sirens  ;  or  to  go 
through  Circe's  den  not  only  unsullied  but  a  liberator  of 
his  comrades.  When  we  see  the  course  of  Nature  breed- 
ing in  such  schools  its  human  genius,  we  may  know 
how  closely  allied  are  conscience  and  superior  talents 


278  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

Underneath  the  slow  grinding  suddenly  a  facet  flashes. 
It  is  true  you  may  grind  at  a  sea-shore  pebble  till 
nothing  comes  of  it  but  sand,  but  before  you  begin  to 
grind  all  stones  appear  of  similar  texture.  The  real 
ideality  is  hid  in  this  persevering  against  the  most 
humiliating  and  prosaic  conditions,  such  as  the  Cre- 
ator maintained  through  chaos  and  his  scarcely  less 
chaotic  creatures  of  the  early  epochs.  A  million  or 
two  years  of  coarse  persistency  vanquish  matter,  and 
Shakspeare  supplants  the  Saurian.  Why  should  he 
not  in  every  man  and  woman?  for  conscience  can 
become  Shakspearian  underneath  a  hod  of  mortar 
that  mounts  round  by  round  to  top  the  house.  Young 
people  must  learn  that  their  creative  and  inspiring 
impulse  is  not  derived  from  high  Art,  but  from  ac- 
commodation to  low  requirements  in  a  high  vein  to 
make  them  serve,  to  extort  from  them  such  exquisite 
tones  as  the  Russian  did  out  of  his  bits  of  wood  cut 
from  diflerent  trees,  till  he  converted  the  forest  into 
a  harmonicon  ;  and  that  other  obscure  inventor,  who 
coaxed  a  heap  of  various  stones  to  yield  up  its  sepa- 
rate notes,  and  to  fall  into  place  in  perfect  octaves. 

All  the  manifoldness  of  modern  labor  appears,  to 
the  first  superficial  judgment,  to  be  only  setting  the 
rich  rim  of  earth  with  the  jewels  of  cities,  embossing 
it  with  the  traits  of  human  enterprise,  and  shaking 
out  the  white  sails  of  intercourse  on  every  water,  that 
man's  dexterity  may  pass  from  hand  to  hand,  to  equal- 
ize comfort  and  success.  But  these  things  are  the 
dead  Scripture  of  a  divine  Ideal ;  they  have  no  mean- 
ing until  we  perceive  that  human  work  is  a  means  of 
human  ennoblement,  and  that  all  products  thus  pass 


CONSTANCY    TO    AN    IDEAL.  279 

from  hand  to  hand  that  souls  may  be  equalized,  and 
divine  Providence  cease  to  be  a  monopoly. 

It  sometimes  appears  doubtful  if  w^e  really  appre- 
ciate this  question.  When  I  see  the  vulgar  ambition 
of  men  who  strive  to  better  their  condition  by  using 
labor  of  some  kind  merely  to  break  their  way  into 
stock-jobbing,  note-shaving,  cotton-broking  ;  when  the 
healthy  farm  is  left  for  the  dry  and  sultry  pavement, 
where  men's  manhood  goes  up  in  steam  and  leaves  their 
sub-soil  barren  ;  when  it  appears  to  be  the  object  to 
do  the  minimum  of  work  for  the  maximum  of  comfort, 
and  to  join  a  well-clothed  mob  that  goes  wild  with 
speculating,  jobbing,  lobbying,  contracting,  living  by 
the  wits,  —  a  doubt  comes  over  my  mind  if  the  young 
men  understand  the  name,  America.  This  is  the 
meaning  of  that  word  which  the  rhetorician  and  the 
demagogue  admire  :  Whatsoever  thy  hands  find  to  do, 
do  it  with  all  thy  might !  Not  with  thy  meanness, 
nor  with  thy  shiftiness,  but  with  thy  might,  with  thy 
whole  soul,  as  the  winds  blow,  as  the  sun  shines,  as 
the  tide  runs  up  a  continent ;  with  all  the  native  ele- 
ments of  a  free  man,  not  with  the  adroitness  of  a 
juggler,  to  play  tricks,  and  outwit  everybody  with 
such  a  superfluous  appearance  of  slncei'ity.  Find 
something  to  do,  not  something  in  the  city  to  save 
the  trouble  of  doing;  find  something  that  increases 
the  values  of  the  world,  not  something  that  merely 
plays  with  them  a  game  of  shuttlecock.  To  all  this 
strenuous  Idleness  w^hich  has  demoralized  our  gfreat 
cities,  God  repeats  the  ancient  necessity :  "  Earn 
thy  bread  in  the  sweat  of  thy  brow."  We  have  a 
country  while  Liberty  wears  those   glistening  drops, 


2So  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

sccino-  that  earth  is  too  poor  to  match,  out  of  all  her 
crown  jewels,  the  native  tiara  of  a  Republic.  But 
whoever  lives  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  labor  seem 
degrading,  which  he  cannot,  do  without  stealing  the 
labor  of  other  men,  prepares  to  betray  Liberty,  for  he 
has  already  parted  with  his  own. 

Why  is  it  such  a  fatal  thing  when  a  country  has 
men  who  throw  discredit  upon  labor?  Wherever  a 
theory  prevails  that  work  is  degrading,  great  mischief 
ensues  :  not  because  a  false  ambition  withdraws  need- 
ful hands  from  employments,  for  there  are  many  kinds 
of  v/ork  that  demand  diversities  of  gifts.  If  a  man 
lays  down  one  tool  to  take  up  another,  he  may  still 
be  faithful  to  the  Commonwealth.  And  it  is  not  be- 
cause men  work  badly  who  work  under  the  contempt 
of  their  fellows,  although  there  is  no  labor  so  ill  done 
as  that  which  is  so  meanly  requited.  But  some  kind 
of  necessity  —  hunger,  the  climate,  or  the  whip  —  will 
compel  men  to  work  in  spite  of  human  scorn :  and 
the  work  will  correspond  to  the  necessity.  In  degrad- 
ing labor  the  mischief  is  done  to  mankind  by  degrad- 
ing Providence  :  it  is  a  practical  infidelity  to  the  idea 
that  God  is  a  Creator.  See  how  it  operates.  Work 
runs  through  the  universe  :  it  is  the  condition  of  per- 
manence and  growth.  Mankind  is  not  retarded  so 
much  by  inefficiency  as  by  the  arrogance  that  will  not 
imitate  God,  for  a  certain  per  cent  of  inefficiency  must 
always  accompany  so  many  births,  being  only  another 
accident  of  malformation.  But  God,  in  prosecuting 
his  divine  schemes,  allows  for  inefficiency  but  not  for 
infidelity  ;  not  for  the  arrogance  that  forgets  it  has 
been  born,  not  for  the  ignorance  that  calls  it  an  honor 


CONSTANCY    TO    AN    IDEAL.  281 

to  do  nothing.  When  one  variety  of  work  is  thought 
degrading,  all  the  other  varieties  become  impaired. 
It  is  a  revolt  of  the  whole  working  organization  against 
the  order  of  the  world.  Intellect  itself  is  betrayed 
when  it  is  anxious  to  make  it  appear  that  no  vulgar 
labors  occupy  it.  It  is  trying  to  separate  itself  from 
the  natural  religion  of  mankind,  and  to  pass  off  for 
something  better  than  a  laborer.  What  intellect  God 
puts  into  the  strokes  of  every  day,  as  he  thinks  it  not 
degrading  to  have  his  petroleum  ready  for  the  tap, 
his  veins  of  coal  and  granite  ready  for  the  blaster's 
drill,  his  oak  rimmed  for  keelsons  with  the  hardness  of 
a  thousand  years !  He  puts  slag  into  his  iron,  quartz 
into  his  gold,  wildness  and  peril  into  his  nursling 
whales,  and  rejoices  to  provoke  our  honest  labor. 
There  is  not  a  stroke  made  by  pen  or  pickaxe  that  is 
not  in  answer  to  the  mind  of  God.  He  holds  the 
most  precious  things  beyond  our  arm's  length,  —  gems, 
gold,  beauty ;  he  worketh  hitherto  to  make  them,  and 
we  must  work  to  win  them,  —  diamonds  in  the  river 
channel,  pearls  in  the  duskiness  of  Indian  seas,  liberty 
in  every  acre  of  the  soil.  How  long  His  mind  must 
brood  before  he  can  bring  forests  to  lignite,  and  lignite 
to  coal ;  before  the  element  of  carbon  will  bleach 
and  whiten  into  the  Koh-i-noor,  before  the  soil  of  a 
Republic  can  be  transmuted  into  the  Rights  of  Man  ! 
This  is  all  the  industry  of  God,  who  knows  that  idle- 
ness is  chaos,  and  an  idle  man  the  soul's  disorganizer. 
Wherever  this  tendency  to  undervalue  labor  exists, 
one  service  at  least  is  performed,  though  no  man  may 
lift  his  finger,  for  it  puts  into  a  rough,  symbolic  shape 
the  disease  of  reverie  which  infects  smart  people  with 


2S2  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

the  notion  that  their  gift  of  sensibility,  their  claim  to 
attainment,  or  conceit  of  superiority,  is  a  fine  and 
rather  exclusive  performance  in  the  interest  of  an 
ideal  impulse.  Some  peopJe,  thus  afflicted,  break 
into  verse,  mistaking  their  mood  for  a  touch  of  the 
divine  imagination,  inflate  their  thin  fabric,  and  look 
down  upon  the  flatness  of  the  world.  Thus  crudity, 
hysteria,  and  verbal  facility  sail  airily  over  solid  con- 
tinents of  struggling  merit,  never  to  return.  But 
plenty  of  friends  distend  this  self-satisfaction  with  a 
belching  flattery,  so  that  continual  relays  of  ft  float 
jauntily  above  the  silence  of  faithful  souls.  These 
aerial  contrivances  bear  easily  the  weight  of  their  con- 
trivers, and  carry  them  into  the  endless  circuit  of  the 
winds. 

It  is  worth  considering  how  both  self-satisfaction 
and  self-distrust  damage  our  best  ideas,  and  let  down 
our  constancy  to  them. 

When  Thorwaldsen  had  finished  his  remarkable 
statue  of  Christ,  he  was  observed  to  be  very  sad ;  and 
to  a  friend  who  asked  the  reason,  he  said  :  "  My  genius 
is  decaying."  "  How  so?"  "My  statue  of  Christ  is 
the  first  of  all  my  works  that  has  satisfied  me.  Hither- 
to my  idea  has  always  far  outrun  my  execution.  But 
if  now  I  am  satisfied,  I  know  I  shall  never  have  a 
great  idea  again." 

In  the  struggle  for  life  and  for  moral  promotion  we 
arrive  at  certain  points  where  our  greatest  danger 
tlueatens  us.  It  is  that  of  being  content  with  arriving. 
Contests  that  result  in  our  fiivor,  combinations  that 
humor  us,  moments  when  we  baffle  temperament  and 
snatch  a  moral  life,  have  a  chance  still  left  in  favor  of 


CONSTANCY    TO    AN    IDEAL.  283 

evil :  that,  namely,  of  demoralizing  us  by  a  feeling 
of  satisfaction.  There  was  an  old  general  who  made 
a  successful  landing  of  his  troops  upon  a  hostile  shore  : 
his  first  act  before  advancing  was  to  burn  the  ships 
that  brought  him.  A  falling  back  was  then  no  longer 
to  be  thought  of.  That  is  the  way  we  ought  to  treat 
our  attainments :  sacrifice  them  to  the  necessity  of 
victory,  otherwise  they  only  become  the  opportunities 
for  declining  the  contest  that  impends.  And  a  contest 
is  always  waiting  in  the  front.  To  whatever  spot  we 
travel  we  find  that  we  have  only  reached  a  place  for 
discovering  a  necessity  for  travelling  again,  or  of  losing 
the  advantages  already  gained.  If  a  man  could  really 
come  up  abreast  of  his  ideal,  he  would  be  no  better 
off*  than  the  circumnavigators  who  reach  the  point 
from  which  they  started.  For  to  have  no  longer  an 
ideal  to  pursue  is  the  same  as  having  never  set  out. 
So,  fortunately,  the  spiritual  life  is  not  a  succession  of 
little  horizons,  whose  surmises  and  expectations  only 
delude  us  around  to  the  place  where  first  we  lifted 
anchor.  We  shall  never  see  that  insipid  calm  again, 
nor  be  fastened  to  its  buoys. 

We  reach  certain  points  of  our  spiritual  develop- 
ment where  the  great  danger  threatens  us  of  being 
too  conscious  that  we  have  got  so  far,  too  content  with 
it,  less  difl^icult  to  please  than  before,  a  little  hurt  by 
the  obvious  advantages  we  have  gained.  Hannibal 
overstaid  his  time  after  the  battle  of  Cannae :  his 
quartermasters,  instead  of  getting  ready  rations  for  a 
march  to  Rome,  were  counting  how  many  bushels  of 
knight's  rings  had  been  stripped  from  the  bodies 
of  the  slain  ;  and  the  common  soldiers  lost  their  disci- 


284  AMERICAN   RELIGION. 

pline  In  months  of  high  living.  The  best  and  most  as- 
piring of  people  are  apt  to  have  their  Plains  of  Capua, 
where  they  linger  to  make  a  luxury  of  their  successes. 
^Icn  who  are  in  a  condition  to-  push  on  are  the  most 
demoralized  by  waiting.  Soldiers  say  that  the  hard- 
est trial,  next  to  that  of  continually  falling  back,  is  a 
check  given  to  their  instinct  that  a  prime  advantage 
has  put  them  in  prime  order  for  an  immediate  ad- 
vance. Napoleon  used  to  risk  something  on  the 
strength  of  this  instinctive  confidence. 

Some  of  our  most  noted  reveries  of  satisfaction  and 
distrust  look  their  worst  when  they  are  unflinchingly 
translated  into  the  vernacular.  This  is  a  task  which 
men  sometimes  undertake  for  themselves.  But  it  is 
the  nature  of  reverie  to  resolve  action  and  thinking^ 
into  mere  nebulous  possibility,  to  recur  thus  to  a  con- 
dition that  precedes  the  formative  and  deciding  Word. 
It  is  well  to  precipitate  into  words  some  of  these 
vague  moods  of  the  best  people.  Here  is  one  of 
them  :  "  How  well  I  have  done !  I  appear  to  have 
got  over  this  fault ;  I  have  checkmated  my  obtrusive 
temperament :  it  is  so  long  since  I  gave  way  to  it  — 
so  many  weeks  or  months  since  the  last  fit  of  spleen, 
ill-temper,  impure  thinking,  grudge  of  other  people, 
envy  of  wealth,  beauty  or  goodness.  I  have  had  a 
whole  year  of  high-minded  feeling ;  it  has  been  sig- 
nalized by  a  good  many  hours  which  I  will  claim  con 
taincd  a  consciousness  of  God.  Yes,  I  have  had 
some  beautiful  hours :  stop,  my  soul,  let  us  remember 
them,  and  recall  together  the  dates  and  circumstances. 
I  feel  myself  sinking  into  a  delicious  recurrence  of 
past  excellence  :  what  summer  afternoon  ever  brouo-ht 

o 


CONSTANCY    TO    AN    IDEAL.  285 

me  such  repose,  or  lulled  the  senses  and  the  mind  into 
such  harmony.  It  is  midsummer's  escape  from  ele- 
mental rages.  "  Now,  if  ever,  are  perfect  days." 
Satisfied  memory  broods  like  a  clear  sky  over  my  life. 
It  puts  an  ear  to  my  earth  and  tries  if  it  be  in  tune. 

Whenever  a  man  is  fascinated  by  the  coast  on 
which  he  has  landed,  it  is  fortunate  for  him  if  his 
conscience,  without  hesitation,  cries,  "  Burn  your 
ships !  "  The  past  is  dead,  all  its  actions  have  fallen 
off;  they  did  duty,  like  leaves,  for  the  season.  If  a 
man  rakes  his  dead  leaves  together,  it  is  a  poor  and 
thin  compost  that  he  makes.  Pass  on,  the  ground 
will  soon  be  encumbered  with  them.  Only  boys  like 
to  hear  them  rustling,  as  they  scud  through  on  purpose 
to  stir  them  up.  Men  are  not  made  for  such  conceited 
reveries.  Burn  your  ships,  and  let  the  impassable 
sea-line  be  your  base.  Plunge  right  into  the  ideal 
future,  pursuing  after  pomp  finer  than  any  that  you 
have  overtaken,  more  sensibility  for  the  divine  pres- 
ence, more  knowledge  of  its  laws  and  satisfaction 
with  them,  more  fraternity  for  man,  which  is  divinity 
for  God,  —  more  prodigality  of  all  the  gifts,  sending 
them  out  right  and  left,  cool  and  bold,  to  beat  up  the 
thickets  and  forage  for  truth. 

Sometimes  a  mortified  and  discouraged  person 
might  recognize  this  plain  speaking :  "  I  can't  get 
on.  What  force  I  have  I  brins:  to  bear  in  the  risfht 
direction,  but  the  rails  seem  to  be  ice-coated,  and  I  do 
not  run.  The  bias  towards  a  certain  evil  in  me  turns 
out  to  be  strong  enough  to  set  my  purpose  of  over- 
coming it  at  defiance.  My  ancestors  have  been  too 
hard  upon   me  :   they  lived  first,  and    they  lived  fast. 


286  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

The  emotions  indulged  by  them  gave  a  warp  to  the 
brain,  a  generation  at  a  time,  —  so  small  as  never  to 
excite  an  active  jealousy,  and  to  leave  a  slim  balance 
of  regrets,  —  till  here  I  am,  at  the  end  of  the  process, 
with  a  disposition  slowly  deposited,  like  a  coral  reef, 
against  whose  concrete  my  will  is  weak  as  water. 
Mv  forefathers  only  paid  the  interest  as  it  accrued  : 
but  they  left  the  debt  to  me.  Here  I  am,  imprisoned 
with  my  better  ideal  in  an  organization  that  is  scored 
by  the  fret  of  all  the  years.  Who  wonders  when 
rocks  upon  the  coast  begin  to  crumble?  The  first 
billow  found  them  as  smooth  as  itself:  but  time, 
though  never  in  a  hurry,  is  always  patient,  and  feels 
after  Its  crack  to  work  upon.  By  and  by  the  cliff 
stands  waist-deep  in  its  own  debris,  and  every  kind  of 
greediness  can  climb  up  and  paste  its  impudent  pla- 
card upon  it.  So  that  now  I  am  read  of  all  men  to 
mean  sloth,  gluttony,  conceit,  concupiscence.  I  stand 
for  something  In  the  line  of  self-indulgence,  and  my 
very  face  advertises  what  is  to  be  had  within." 

This  also  may  be  recognized :  "I  cannot  keep  my 
temper  under  slights  and  provocations  that  other  men 
shed ;  for  I  am  boiled  down  and  put  up  of  several 
hundred  considerable  tempers,  that  were  all  well 
nourished  in  their  day."  May  not  this  also  find  its 
counterpart :  '^  What  Is  my  love  for  drink  but  the 
distillation  of  all  the  excellent  liquor  that  my  genial 
ancestors  con'sumed  In  hospitable  exigencies.?  They 
were  slow  to  be  afiected  :  but  I  am  at  the  end  of  the 
feast,  aiul  the  drunkenness  has  just  set  in.  The  few 
years  of  my  better  tendencies  have  before  them  the 
task  of  undoing  the  work  of  two  or  three  convivial 


CONSTANCY    TO    AN    IDEAL.  2S7 

generations.  How  shall  I  set  to  work?  It  seems  to 
me  as  if  I  am  a  trap  for  drink  :  I  catch  it  by  foreordi- 
nation.  I  may  as  well  carry  out  the  unexpressed 
wishes  of  those  whose  legatee  and  sole  executor  I  am." 

And  here  is  some  person  who  has  moments  of 
awakening:  to  the  consciousness  that  his  chief  love  is 
avarice.  But  he  comes  of  a  money-making  family, 
and  the  brio:ht  round  dollars  have  been  the  blood- 
disks  that  circulated  to  the  heart  and  brain.  Its 
proverb,  earliest  whispered  into  youthful  ears,  has 
been,  "  With  all  thy  understanding  get  to  getting."  Is 
it  remorse,  is  it  consolation,  or  is  it  despair  when  the 
latest  representative  of  these  besotted  exemplars  might 
be  thus  expressed :  "  They  took  care  of  the  pennies, 
and  now  the  pounds  are  taking  a  sarcastic  care  of  me. 
Their  small  profits  are  my  great  undoing.  They 
fastened  this  rag-picker's  wallet  to  my  back,  and  told 
me  that  the  world  was  my  gutter  for  me  to  farm.  I 
rake  it,  and  the  heavier  and  more  intolerable  grows 
my  pack  with  the  findings  I  jerk  into  it,  the  closer  it 
clings  around  my  chest  and  heart.  Will  death  itself 
undo  this  accumulation  of  so  many  sordid  minds  .^ 
Will  the  soul,  that  has  been  bent  double  by  the  stoop- 
ing of  so  many  upon  it  from  the  past,  shoot  up  to  its 
true  stature  in  the  kingdom  where  the  dollar  does  not 
reign.?  Welcome  the  hour  that  may  put  me  where  a 
man  cannot  take  a  dollar  in  exchanofe  for  a  soul !  " 

We  have  all  seen  many  persons  who  appear  to  us 
quite  ruined.  Perhaps  there  is  a  better  judge  of  that ; 
but,  if  it  be  true,  the  fact  is  not  so  revolting  to  us  as 
the  shock  is  which  it  gives  to  our  natural  preferences. 
The   most  deeply  compromised  person  will  prefer  to 


2SS  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

think  that  health  lias  not  become  impossible  for  him; 
he  shares  the  instinct  of  nature  which  struggles  des- 
perately to  make  its  growths  shapely  under  gnarled 
conditions.  A  man  clings  to  his  share  of  a  divine 
ideal  of  recuperation.  No  number  of  damaged  struct- 
ures can  vote  down  our  feeling  that  supreme  Good 
aspires  through  man  to  become  expressed  and  organ- 
ized ;  it  shakes  its  signals  of  direction  through  the 
densest  fog  that  we  can  exhale.  We  see  the  light 
discolored,  but  do  not  mistake  it  for  darkness ;  we 
observe  whence  it  comes,  and  trust  to  its  hints  regard- 
ing our  safety.  On  various  principles  of  judgment 
preachers  declare  these  men  and  those  women  to  be 
abandoned.  The  epithet  remands  God  back  to  chaos. 
The  poet  grants  us  a  better  glimpse  of  the  hold  on 
life  that  innocence  possesses  :  — 

'*  I  helped  a  man  to  die,  some  few  weeks  since, 
Warped  even  from  his  go-cart  to  one  end  — 
The  living  on  princes'  smiles,  reflected  from 
A  mighty  herd  of  favorites.     No  mean  trick 
He  left  untried  ;  and  truly  well-nigh  wormed 
All  traces  of  God's  finger  out  of  him. 
Then  died,  grown  old ;  and  just  an  hour  before  — 
Having  lain  long  with  blank  and  soulless  eyes  — 
He  sate  up  suddenly,  and  with  natural  voice 
Said,  that  in  spite  of  thick  air  and  closed  doors 
God  told  him  it  was  June;  and  he  knew  well, 
Without  such  telling,  hare-bells  grew  in  June; 
And  all  that  kings  could  ever  give  or  take 
Would  not  be  precious  as  those  blooms  to  him." 

Does  not  that  precious  cherishing  snatch  a  new  June 
from  the  collapse  of  the  body,  as  a  wrecker  disentan- 
gles a  still  living  babe  from  the  last  freezing  strain  of 


CONSTANCY    TO    AN    IDEAL.  289 

a  drowned  mother?  We  can  only  bid  our  imagina- 
tion frame,  in  the  interest  of  the  universe,  at  least  a 
remonstrance  against  the  destruction  of  the  babe. 
For  we  must  always  presume  that  the  faintest  pulse 
is  a  possible  chance  for  the  heart  to  recover  its  full 
beat. 

The  world  could  transact  nothing,  and  no  race  could 
ever  develop  its  special  felicity,  if  the  ideal  of  good- 
ness ever  deserted  its  infelicitous  men  and  women. 
But  in  many  a  case  its  continuing  becomes  tedious  as 
a  disease.  Some  of  the  most  finely  organized  people, 
advantaged  by  good  fathers  and  mothers  who  have 
been  long  dead,  never  forget  that  when  a  good  past 
culminates  in  a  man  it  is  the  consecrating  of  a  temple 
that  has  been  long  building ;  still  they  fall  into  heart- 
broken moments  of  stupor,  flatness,  and  inanity. 
The  body  has  its  dull  days  and  misrepresents  the 
w^eather  to  the  spirit.  A  shadow  makes  no  noise  and 
is  never  announced :  people  picking  flowers  in  the 
fields  first  know  of  it  when  the  chill  slides  up  to  them. 
The  body  is  often  the  cloud  that  comes  eating  up  the 
landscape  thus.  But  the  mind  also  has  its  unhealthy 
tricks  :  the  worst  of  which  among  fine  people  is  the 
trick  of  letting  society  do  all  their  living  for  them,  the 
defect  of  holding  no  great  purpose,  of  having  nothing 
dependent  upon  self-sacrifice,  —  not  one  beggar  of  a 
cause  to  feed,  not  one  breast  of  a  challenging  truth  in 
which  to  flesh  the  sparkling  sword  of  the  ideal,  that 
it  may  draw  the  blood  of  heaven,  and  rejoice  to  have 
its  sparkle  thus  quenched.  Then  the  noble  soul  de- 
clares its  regrets,  and  does  not  scruple  to  paint  deep 
its  shame  iu  melancholy  upon  the  cheeks :   so  deep, 

13 


290 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


as  if  it  would  announce  to  all  beholders,  "  It  is  too 
late:  it  is  over  with  me  —  I  am  dying  of  too  much 
purposeless  purposing.  Smattering  of  many  tongues 
has  spoiled  my  mother-tongu.e.  I  stammer  with  petty 
fluency.  I  have  every  thing  to  express  and  forty  noth- 
ings to  express  it  in  :  an  active  imagination  clapped  in 
the  social  stocks ;  an  ardent  soul,  tethered  to  a  peg, 
I  eat  all  that's  succulent  within  my  range.  Why  do 
I  not  pull  up  the  peg,  and  exchange  my  paddock  for  a 
landscape?  Alas,  it  is  too  late  :  my  trick  of  indolence, 
of  squeamishness,  my  one  selfish  streak,  w^hatever  it 
may  be,  has  been  spared  too  long.  The  peg  has 
taken  root:  so  here  I  am,  browsing  around  and  look- 
ing through  a  rail-fence  at  the  arrival  and  departure 
of  the  gods." 

I  say  to  all  persons  who  have  these  regrets,  born  of 
vice,  of  self-indulgence,  of  physical  despondency,  or 
of  baffled  minds :  I  say  to  all  whose  cry  declares  that 
their  ideal  is  not  dead.  Burn  your  ships  !  You  have 
arrived,  but  you  have  run  your  ships  upon  the  shore 
stern-foremost,  and  their  radiant,  figure-heads  are  out 
to  sea :  look  out  lest  tide  and  wind  float  you  off'  from 
the  firm  feel  of  the  land.  This  is  your  time,  between 
two  tides :  over  with  your  freight,  and  dare  to  meet, 
by  this  one  resolute  rejection  of  the  past,  all  that  you 
dread,  —  the  whole  palpable,  solid  difficulty  that  lies 
before  you. 

"  Knowing  ourselves,  our  world,  our  task  so  great, 
Our  time  so  brief,  —'tis  clear  if  we  refuse 
The  means  so  limited,  the  tools  so  rude 
To  execute  our  purpose,  life  will  fleet, 
And  we  shall  fade,  and  leave  our  task  undone. 


CONSTANCY    TO    AN    IDEAL.  29I 

Rather,  grow  wise  in  time  :  what  though  our  work 
Be  fashioned  in  despite  of  their  ill-service, 
Be  crippled  every  way?     'Twere  little  praise 
Did  full  resources  wait  on  our  good-will 
At  every  turn." 

What  accusations  of  the  corrupt  society  in  Europe 
and  America  appeal  to  ears  that  are  reluctant  to  be- 
lieve the  facts  !  Pamphlets  are  written  to  expose  the 
trickery  of  gold  and  whiskey  rings,  of  railroad  com- 
binations and  rivalries,  of  the  lobbying  that  goes  on 
beneath  historic  panels  where  moments  of  abandon- 
ment to  great  ideas  are  recorded.  Why  do  we  suspect 
the  truth  with  such  difficulty,  and  can  hardly  tolerate 
the  thought  that  man  has  lived  so  long,  suffered  so 
much,  and  let  the  blood  of  such  hearts  run  away,  to 
end  in  this  knavery?  Because  we  inherit  a  i^ortion  of 
the  divine  imagination,  and  no  society  was  ever  cor- 
rupt enough  to  extinguish  it.  When  Alaric,  in  the 
year  40S,  appeared  before  Rome,  and  finally  fixed  the 
ransom  of  the  city  at  6,000  pounds  of  gold  and  30,000 
of  silver,  the  patricians  could  not  scrape  enough  to- 
gether without  melting  down  some  of  the  statues  of 
the  gods:  among  others  that  of  Virtus  —  Valor. 
That  is  generally  melted  away  before  an  Alaric  can 
get  near  enough  to  demand  a  ransom.  When  our  old 
parties  did  it  at  the  bidding  of  Slavery,  it  was  called 
"  effecting  a  Compromise."  But  Alaric  appeared, 
and  the  wicked  epoch  fell  strangling  in  its  own  blood. 
vSometimes  God  prefers  to  wear  an  uncouth  and  bar- 
barian aspect  rather  than  leave  his  Ideal  to  be  gam- 
bled away  by  the  sharpers  of  mankind.  To  a  dissolute 
society  he  seems  a  Goth  ;  but  there   is  fresh   blood  in 


292 


AMERICAN   RELIGION. 


those  angry  veins,  and  the  light  of  eternity  in  those 
intolerable  eyes.  For  mankind  is  expressly  built  to 
perpetuate  God's  pure  intentions :  we  dream  of  them 
and  aspire  to  reorganize  them  as  fast  as  they  give  hints 
to  us  of  our  own  hostility.  Something  greater  than 
our  greatest  vice  is  shaken  by  a  remembrance  of  divine 
origin,  and  wakes  up  in  time  to  pull  back  the  world 
IVom  the  brink.  It  threatens  in  the  gestures  of  all 
persons  who  are  only  half  liberated  from  our  selfish- 
ness :  in  the  workman  and  the  needlewoman  it  protests 
and  frames  its  piteous  indictment ;  in  the  hands  of 
the  social  critic  its  rapier  plays  dangerously  before 
besotted  eyes.  Its  dire  necessity  becomes  so  great 
that  it  overcomes  at  lensfth  the  sexton  and  the  oarish- 

O  J. 

committee,  elbows  through  all  the  sanctity,  and 
rushes  up  the  pulpit  stairs,  imploring  and  reproachful, 
as  though  its  right  had  always  been  to  have  started 
thence  to  carry  divine  nature  down  among  the  people. 
No  privilege  is  high  enough  to  look  down  upon  God's 
imagination  :  for  having  once  conceived  his  own  right 
mind,  he  devotes  eternity  to  Virtue  and  the  Rights 
of  Man. 

The  great  resource  that  man  first  derived  from  God, 
and  all  men  from  him  and  from  each  other  ever  since, 
is  this  good-will  that  prolongs  the  act  of  creation,  and 
keeps  us,  in  spite  of  failures,  still  capable  to  undertake 
morality.  It  survives  the  most  eccentric  periods  of 
private  or  public  life,  and  is  so  competent,  indeed, 
that  it  seems  to  select  the  path  to  its  object  that 
lies  through  evil,  as  if  conscious  that  there  it  would 
be  tested  and  toughened,  and  driven  to  reality.  It  has 
a  tendency  to    youthful    reverie    which  is  broken  up 


CONSTANCY   TO    AN    IDEAL.  293 

by  some  extravagance  of  behavior.  Evil  cannot  be 
justified  until  God  is  detected  sharpening  upon  it  the 
sword  of  the  spirit :  or,  shall  I  say,  It  Is  a  rude  and 
jangling  sheath  in  which  the  sword  blazes  to  Itself 
and  bides   its  time. 

In  our  first  unchartered  moments,  when  we  dis- 
cover that  Nature  can  be  a  bit  of  a  spend-thrift,  we 
have  a  companion  better  than  all  with  whom  we 
sport,  and  the  inner  sense  reaches  for  Its  hand :  as 
when  a  youth,  blind-folded  for  a  game,  threads  by 
some  glimmer  of  seeing  or  of  mere  attraction,  the 
whole  romping  scene,  and  pursues  the  beauty  who 
one  day  shall  be  his.  Heaven  Is  never  In  despair ; 
it  has  watched  too  many  generations  and  profited 
by  their  prevailing  goodness  not  to  perceive  that  If 
dissoluteness  be  out  of  order,  so  Is  cynicism  and  a 
sceptical  temper  about  ordinary  people,  if  not  more 
hostile  to  an  ideal  life.  So  the  young  persons  launch 
their  divine  gifts  upon  a  stream  that  is  fretted  with 
rapids  near  Its  head  :  some  make  the  portages,  others 
try  the  shoot, —  the  stream  more  tranquil  always  lies 
below.  There  are  eddies  that  carry  them  Into  In- 
dulgences of  social  and  material  pleasure.  The 
parents  generally  dissuade  with  a  great  deal  of  wise 
shaking  of  the  head,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  We  've  tried 
all  that,  and  seen  the  folly  of  It."  It  is  an  ideal 
Instinct  that  prompts  the  children  to  reply,  "  Well, 
we  would  like  to  see  the  folly  of  It  too."  How  lucky 
it  is  that  nobody  can  decant  his  old  wine  into  the  new 
bottles  !  So  the  youth  gets  his  promotion  from  the 
nursery  to  school,  to  occupation,  to  love  and  marriage, 
to  the   successive  disciplines  ;    and  his  knowledge  of 


294 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


one  period  never  makes  him  equal  to  the  next  one, 
which  always  has  some  surprising  element  that  tests 
him  on  a  new  side.  We  have  to  go  storming  parallel 
after  jDarallel.  Up  we  run  .impetuously,  with  glad 
acclaim,  and  plant  our  colors ;  before  the  wind  takes 
them,  we  perceive  an  inner  line  that  we  had  not 
suspected.  Headlong  we  go  at  that  too,  only  to  find 
that  the  busy  antagonist  has  thrown  up  another ;  and 
that  also  has  to  be  assailed.  It  is  plot  and  counter- 
plot, mine  and  counter-mine :  reality  works,  while 
the  ideal  catches  a  nap  leaning  upon  its  weapon,  till, 
as  we  sink  and  the  colors  falter  on  the  last  breach, 
we  find  that  death  is  only  a  resource  and  desperate 
ambush  of  a  foe  that  is  sullenly  retreating ;  and  to- 
morrow the  Ideal,  light-armed,  with  marching  rations 
and  the  packs  all  left  behind,  will  buoyantly  pursue. 
What  a  hint  of  personal  immortality  is  this  rela- 
tive imperfection  of  our  experiences  !  They  suggest 
the  absolute  perfection  which  is  the  plan  of  every 
soul,  like  the  crumbled  scale  or  bone  that  taught 
the  naturalist  the  structure,  shape,  and  habits  of  an 
extinct  fish,  whose  fossil  even  no  man  had  ever  seen. 
One  day  a  fossil  is  found  to  justify,  in  the  minutest  par- 
ticulars, the  infallibility  of  the  scientific  imagination. 
Our  partial  experiences  contain  the  history  of  souls 
not  yet  completed,  and  they  are  guarantees  given  to 
us  directly  by  the  divine  imagination,  the  earnest 
of  the  spirit,  that  the  whole  plan  must  include  all 
the  time  and  opportunity  needed  to  fill  out  the  spir- 
itual form.  Eternity  is  in  pledge  to  our  successive 
disappointments.  Every  morning  we  go  down  to  the 
edge  of  it  like  the  fishermen  of  rock-bound  coasts,  and 


CONSTANCY   TO    AN    IDEAL. 


295 


put  off  upon  it  as  they  do,  to  fight  for  their  little  gains, 
and  satisfy  the  hunger  that  is  as  prompt  to  return  as 
the  morning.  All  day  we  trawl  and  hunt  by  various 
devices  for  our  shy  sustenance  ;  and  the  fruitful  infinite 
stretches  all  around  us,  so  deep  and  coy  that  every 
thing  is  hidden,  so  deep  that  every  thing  is  contained-. 
Our  day  sinks  into  its  storm  or  calm.  Over  it  our 
day  breaks   with  wants  that  never  are  appeased. 

What  do  we  care  for  the  expense  that  this  spend- 
thrift, our  good-will  for  God,  subjects  us  to  ?  If  any 
thing  is  to  be  melted  for  a  beautiful  casting,  men 
keep  the  flame  up,  and  throw  in  all  the  fuel  in  the 
neighborhood.  There  is  nothing  too  precious  to  go 
towards  making  a  soul  limpid  and  symmetrical. 
Bernard  Palissy,  at  the  end  of  twenty  years  spent 
in  vain  attempts  to  create  a  white  enamel  for  his 
pottery,  found  nothing  left  but  the  house  he  lived  in, 
and  the  fences  around  it.  Not  a  billet  of  wood,  for 
love  or  money,  to  keep  up  the  furnace  with.  The 
palings  were  ripped  down  and  thrown  in,  —  the 
enamel  had  not  melted.  There  was  a  crashing  in  the 
house  :  the  children  were  in  dismay  ;  the  wife,  assisted 
doubtless  by  such  female  friends  as  had  dropped  in  to 
comfort  her,  became  loud  in  her  reproaches.  Bernard 
was  breaking  up  the  tables  and  carrying  them  oft',  legs 
and  bodies,  to  the  all-consuming  fire.  Still,  the  enamel 
did  not  melt !  There  was  more  crashing  and  hammer- 
ing in  the  house :  Bernard  was  tearing  up  the  floors 
to  use  the  planks  as  fire- wood.  Frantic  with  despair 
the  wife  rushes  off  to  raise  the  town  against  him.  She 
was  starved  out  by  his  pertinacity ;  he  was  fed  by  his 
idea.      And,  while  she  was  gone,  the  anxieties    and 


2o6  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

poverty  of  twenty  years  flowed  in    the  clear   coating 
that  became  the   rage  of  kings   and   connoisseurs. 

Throw  every  thing  into  the  fire  of  the  Ideal !  —  the 
incumbrances  of  society  and  pleasure,  the  frivolous 
amusements,  the  small  talk  and  idling,  the  clique  feel- 
inffs  and  constraints,  the  conveniences  that  make  our 
life  a  curse,  the  ornaments  that  dress  us  in  a  weight  to 
crush  us  to  the  dust.  Throw  fruitless  regrets  and 
memories,  and  all  the  things  we  are  most  vain  about, 
into  the  devouring  flame.  We  are  clay  in  the  hands 
of  the  potter.  Let  all  our  rubbish  melt  to  make  it 
impei-vious  to  the  weather,  not  subject  to  decay,  much 
sought  for  by  the  King. 


XII. 

THE   AMERICAN    SOLDIER. 

THE  mid-winter  of  America,  bringing  her  shortest 
days,  Hghts  them  up  with  gleams  from  Fore- 
fathers'-Day  and  Christmas,  those  anniversaries  of  two 
births,  —  of  a  symbol  of  human  capacity  in  an  ethical 
form,  and  of  a  country  that  offers  such  capacity  the 
largest  opportunity  it  has  yet  enjoyed.  The  winter 
solstice  never  bred  so  richly  before :  the  midsummers 
of  other  countries  are  less  fertile.  And  every  annual 
recurrence  of  these  events  renews  the  impression  that, 
as  the  darkest  hour  is  towards  morning,  and  the  short- 
est daylight  is  already  turned  sunward,  so  Truth  is 
born  in  a  lowly  and  obscure  manner,  in  out-of-the-way 
places,  under  cheerless  circumstances,  amid  the  buf- 
feting of  men  and  weather,  patient  as  a  child,  but 
tenacious  as  a  martyr,  a  giant  nursed  upon  the  breast 
of  womanly  feebleness.  It  reminds  one  of  Paul's 
paradox,  "  When  I  am  weak  then  am  I  strong"  :  and 
the  most  invigorating  reflection  of  the  season  is,  that  a 
small  and  discouraging  beginning  is  the  best  recom- 
mendation that  a  man  or  a  principle  can  have.  Human 
Capacity  waits  eighteen  centuries  before  it  engenders 
Human  Rights,  laid  first  in  a  manger,  to  be  floated 
hitherward  like  a  waif  of  time,  and  cast  away  upon  a 

13* 


298  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

rock  :  now  a  Republic  has  bled  and  worshipped  in  its 
name.  We  feel  as  if  it  were  a  dangerous  thing  for 
Truth  to  blossom  into  ease  and  splendor.  Paul  is 
more  inspiring  amid  stripes,  fasting,  and  imprison- 
ment, fighting  wild  beasts,  of  body  weak  and  insig- 
nificant, like  a  dull  scabbard  hiding  a  blade  tempered 
at  Damascus.  Peter  is  more  convincing  while  he 
works  at  his  trade  in  Rome  —  that,  namely,  of  tent- 
maker  and  apostle — than  when  he  lives  in  the  Vatican 
and  calls  himself  a  Pope.  Peter  made  tents  four  years 
for  us,  and  sent  men  to  live  in  them  for  the  sake  of 
Truth.  It  was  the  shelter  of  faith  and  determination, 
put  up  and  struck  more  easily  than  St.  Peter's  dome, 
which,  like  a  bell-glass,  defends  show-plants  from 
hardihood  and  usefulness.  We  welcomed  the  trials  in 
which  we  lived,  and  were  pleased  to  see  our  most 
precious  thoughts  abroad  in  that  wild  weather  which 
God  summoned  from  the  elements,  for  it  was  like  all 
Christian  and  Pilgrim  beginnings.  We  would  not  have 
had  success  dawn  too  soon  :  victory  brings  pomp  and 
self-laudation  ;  fortunately  for  mankind  it  brings  also 
the  necessity  for  a  new  adventure,  a  fresh  exercise  of 
plain  and  heroic  dealing.  When  a  man  or  a  nation 
has  done  any  thing,  God  seems  to  say :  "  What  went 
ye  out  into  the  wilderness  to  see?  A  man  clothed  in 
soft  raiment?  They  that  wear  soft  clothing  are  in 
king's  houses.  But  what  went ^^  out  for  to  see?  A 
prophet?     Yea!" 


We  cannot  apply  to  America  the  saying  which  grew 
out  of  a  dislike  to  war :  "  Happy  that  nation  whose 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER.  299 

annals  are  tiresome."  But  that  nation  is  certainly 
happy  which  does  not  forget  its  annals,  if  they  have 
been  written  in  the  blood  of  its  people. 

How  long  it  seems  since  the  men  of  Lowell  and 
Lynn  hurried  to  Baltimore  to  illustrate  a  famous  date 
in  our  history,  and  the  men  of  Ohio  and  the  West  sent 
their  stiff  retort  to  rebel  diplomacy,  in  the  message 
that,  for  their  part,  they  were  continually  prepared  for 
the  "further  effusion  of  blood"  if  the  Republic  de- 
manded it,  and  were  not  in  the  habit  of  surrendering 
much  !  The  ploughshare,  the  shuttle,  the  lap-stone, 
the  flail,  were  converted  by  the  instinct  of  the  men 
who  handled  them  into  the  bayonets  which  have 
defended  and  prolonged  their  use  in  the  interest  of  a 
peaceful  freedom.  Were  it  not  too  painful,  memory 
might  be  freshened  by  reading  the  report  of  the  con- 
dition of  our  prisoners  at  Andersonville,  by  treading 
again  the  wards  of  hospitals  from  east  to  west,  follow- 
ing in  the  wake  of  rebel  barbarity  to  pick  up  our  dese- 
crated dead,  gleaning  the  smiles  and  noble  glances  of 
our  wounded  who  lay  content  upon  fields  which  their 
blood  purchased.  What  a  crucifix  the  common  sol- 
diers found  and  held  up  to  the  adoring  gaze  of  a  coun- 
try, to  convert  it  to  manly  and  religious  truths  !  The 
spirit  of  the  Lord  had  sent  them  to  preach  deliverance 
to  the  captives  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to 
set  at  liberty  them  that  were  bruised. 

How  it  has  faded  from  our  mind,  too,  that  while 
our  mechanics  fought,  their  natural  brethren  of  Eng- 
land, the  Lancashire  cotton-weavers,  fought  also  with 
the  awful  enginery  of  patience  :  for  they  understood 
that    though    no    cotton    came   through,  yet  liberty. 


ooo  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

human  rights,  the  true  bread  from  heaven,  were  run- 
ning the  blockade  daily,  to  bless  them  at  last,  and  feed 
both  mouth  and  mind.  When  their  employers  ex- 
plained to  them  that  the  cause  of  their  suffering  was 
the  American  War,  they  answered,  instead  of  getting 
up  Confederate  sympathy,  "  We  don't  mind  suffering 
a  bit,  if  we  can  only  set  the  poor  slaves  free."  The 
starving  weaver  saw  through  the  war  into  a  practical 
sympathy  with  his  own  class  and  into  liberty  for  all. 
And  surely  if  Jesus  could  have  seen  those  poor  women 
at  a  certain  mill  weep  over  and  kiss,  and  sing  before, 
the  first  bale  of  cotton  that  arrived  there,  he  might 
have  said :  "  These  love  me  better  than  the  women 
who  ran  after  me  in  Judea,  for  these  have  taken  up  a 
cross :  they  have  refused  to  weave  their  sorrows  into 
a  strand  to  put  around  the  neck  of  slaves." 

It  was  such  a  real  epoch  of  a  cross,  that  all  the  sects 
which  pretend  to  exclusive  property  of  that  symbol 
forgot  to  quarrel  about  it,  and  ran  together  into  frater- 
nal worship  at  its  foot.  The  soldier  suggested  to  the 
country  its  chance  to  establish  a  national  religion : 
and  it  is  really  true  that  for  a  time  all  specific  notions 
were  swept  away. 

Now  that  the  people  have  gone  back  again  to  their 
churches,  if  there  be  one  recollection  capable  to  res- 
train the  old  dogmatic  emphasis,  and  to  soften  the 
features  of  differences,  it  must  be  that  the  soldier's 
blood  was  an  atonement  for  sin  which  liberal  and 
orthodox  must  alike  accept,  while  they  delight  to 
make  the  character  of  the  men  wh9  shed  it  a  part  of 
their  scheme  of  religion.  The  country  is  covered  with 
its  texts :   they  are  the   hillocks  which  you   can   still 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER.  3OI 

count,  though  rain  and  weather  have  been  gnawing  at 
them.  They  define  certain  tlioughts  as  sharply  as 
ever :  so  that  there  is  not  a  child's  brain,  that  first 
woke  into  attention  during  those  campaigns,  that  is 
not  coordinated  by  the  story.  It  ought  to  be  his  first 
lesson  in  theology,  that  manliness  is  the  only  sect,  and 
faith  in  natural  ideas  of  justice,  of  God,  and  human 
nature,  the  only  body  of  divinity. 

Just  opposite  my  window  rises  the  steeple  of  a  meet- 
ing-house, and  it  stands  out  with  great  distinctness 
when  the  rising  moon  slips  behind  it  and  is  lost  to 
view.  I  see  a  special  object,  like  a  label  or  advertise- 
ment of  certain  commodities  to  be  had  within.  But  it 
is  far  more  cheering  when  the  moon  emerges  into  the 
clear  sky,  and  reflects  to  me  the  whole  of  the  light 
which  it  gathers  in  one  great  gaze  from  that  sun  be- 
yond my  horizon.  Then  that  and  all  other  steeples 
retreat  into  indistinctness :  no  particular  truth  can  be 
obtrusive  in  a  heaven  that  is  large  enough  for  all  the 
light  that  can  be  thrown  upon  our  intelligence.  How 
it  travels  from  meridian  to  meridian,  casting  scutch 
eons  of  silver  upon  all  those  honorable  graves,  where 
lie  the  men  who  taught  us  that  Character,  emerging 
from  all  the  accidents  of  birth  and  education,  is  Amer- 
ican Religion,  —  faith  in  God,  in  Human  Nature,  and 
in  the  Moral  Law. 

Mr.  Lincoln  said  at  Gettysburg :  "  We  here  highly 
resolve  that  the  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain  ;  that 
the  nation  shall,  under  God,  have  a  new  birth  of  Free- 
dom, and  that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people 
and  for  the  people  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 
But  unless  we  embrace  the  religion  which  inspired 


2,02 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


these  dead  men  to  illustrate  more  than  discipline,  more 
than  valor  and  resolution,  and  which  went  ranking  all 
creeds  under  one  uniform,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  to 
level  their  steel  against  injustice  in  the  front,  and 
to  move  on  its  works  incessantly,  like  a  climate  which 
persists  and  cannot  be  abolished,  —  the  dead  will  have 
died  in  vain. 

It  is  well  to  collect  and  preserve  a  few  of  the  per- 
sonal traits  of  the  American  soldier.  They  all  seem 
to  me  to  be  bone  and  muscle  of  his  personal  religion. 
The  soldiers  of  other  nations  are  brave  in  the  field, 
subtile  and  adroit  in  strategy,  patient  in  hardships, 
.competent  to  obey  orders,  vigilant  at  the  outpost, 
cheerful  in  all  weathers,  ready  for  the  blanket  around 
the  bivouac,  or  for  the  shroud  of  mist  which  folds 
them  in  death's  sleep  upon  the  field.  But  the  Amer- 
ican combination  is  peculiar ;  the  soldier's  elements 
are  differently  mixed  in  him,  and  dominated  by  a  tem- 
perament that  is  as  distinct  from  Europe's  as  our  air  is, 
which  excites  more  nerves  and  furnishes  less  flesh  for 
padding.  The  French  soldier  is  more  gay,  and  inven- 
tive of  jests  at  scars ;  but  there  is  a  lightness  in  them 
which  the  east  wind  forbids  us  to  imitate.  A  young 
Lyonnaise  soldier  wrote  thus  to  his  mother  after  the 
battle  of  Solferino  :  "  My  dear  mother,  —  I  am  yet 
living,  very  living,  and  6o7z  vivant.  Only,  I  am  not 
complete  like  an  omnibus  when  it  rains.  [  Co??zplet  is 
the  sign  put  out  by  the  conductor  to  notify  that  the 
omnibus  is  full.]  The  regimental  surgeon  has  just  cut 
ofT  my  leg.  I  was  accustomed  to  have  it,  and  the 
separation  has  been  severe.  My  sergeant-major,  to 
console   me,  says  that  I  shall  now  have  a  leg  made 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER.  3O3 

to  i^ut  a  stop  to  that.  Rejoice,  my  dear  mother,  in 
your  luck,  for  my  wooden  leg  will  keep  me  at  home, 
your  dear  partner  at  piqtiet.  Hold  !  there's  a  tear  on 
the  paper :  it  is  not  a  tear  of  regret,  but  of  gladness  at 
the  tliought  of  embracing  you." 

This  is  the  Gallic  vein  of  lightness,  only  possible 
to  the  nation  that  at  Fontenoy  yielded  precedence  in 
firing  to  the  English  Guards,  but  in  Algiers  could 
smother  hundreds  of  women  and  children  at  the  com- 
mand of  Pelissier,  and  in  the  Crimea  sent  50,000 
loaves  of  bread  daily  to  their  English  allies  whose 
ovens  were  clumsily  set  up.  Ever  since  Marshal 
Saxe  said  that  battles  were  not  gained  with  the  hands 
but  with  the  feet,  they  are  the  children  who  march, 
bantering  Providence  on  a  full  or  empty  stomach,  but 
requiring  frequent  rations  of  victory  to  sustain  their 
temper.  Their  camp  songs  are  always  gay,  but  those 
of  the  Germans  are  pervaded  with  melancholy,  and 
seem  to  be  set  to  the  distant  mutter  of  cannon  which 
retreat  after  strewing  a  field  with  fragments  of  love 
and  domestic  longing.  For  no  blaze  of  battle  that 
puts  out  the  hearth-light  is  great  enough  to  compen- 
sate a  German.  The  French  are  still  first  among 
European  nations  —  notwithstanding  late  events  and 
imperial  demoralization  —  in  shiftiness  to  meet  and 
overcome  the  contingencies  of  war :  resource  is  on  the 
spot,  and  ekes  out  the  sudden  failure  of  camp  material, 
and  bright  repartee  is  wreaked  upon  the  misfortune 
while  it  is  repairing.  But  the  American  mechanic, 
reared  in  States  where  poverty  has  liberty  to  get  abol- 
ished by  all  kinds  of  dexterity,  and  who  picks  up  the 
nearest  stick  to  whittle  out  of  it  the  school,  the  church, 


;o4 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


the  daily  table,  can  be  matched  nowhere  on  earth  for 
absolute  superiority  to  circumstance.  Self-respect  has 
enjoyed  centuries  of  municipal  training,  and  under- 
stands the  advantage  of  working  for  a  Commonwealth. 
All  its  talents  are  nourished  by  a  moral  feeling  of 
indebtedness  to  the  general  prosperity  which  they  are 
so  easfer  to  enhance.  Other  nations  have  traditions  of 
system  that  encumber  their  attempts  to  adjust  them- 
selves with  unexpected  exigencies.  But  we  are  not 
hampered  by  an  old  chest  of  tools :  if  we  cannot  find 
one  of  them  that  is  competent  to  make  just  the  stroke, 
or  sink  the  groove  that  we  need,  something  is  extem- 
porized to  solve  the  problem.  Said  Governor  Andrew  : 
"  The  men  we  offer,  besides  fighting,  can  do  any  other 
things  for  which  there  may  be  occasion,  from  digging 
clams  up  to  making  pianofortes." 

But  these  volunteers  carried  into  the  field  higfh 
thinking  from  their  low  living,  and  improvised  with 
it  more  bridges  across  the  desperate  breaks  where 
retreating  treason  had  broken  down  the  country's  con- 
science than  their  hands  ever  repaired.  The  dislo- 
cated tracks  of  fidelity  were  tied  to  the  soil  again  by 
men  whose  village  thrift  had  not  impoverished  the 
soul. 

It  was  the  distinction  of  all  the  better  class  of  volun- 
teers, that  they  bore  not  only  the  brunt  of  fighting  and 
the  lassitude  of  defeat,  but  all  the  infirmity  and  scepti- 
cism of  their  comrades.  And  their  moral  power  alone 
made  them  equal  to  it.  Other  men  were  as  dexterous, 
as  brave  and  enduring.  The  soldiers  of  other  coun- 
tries, who  obey  the  system  that  recruits  them  and 
swallows  up  their  individuality,  know  what  the  battle- 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER.  305 

ardor  means,  can  improvise  a  meal  or  a  shelter,  can 
transport  equipments  across  swift  currents,  can  rally 
round  a  flag  at  a  drum-tap  that  interrupts  their  pangs 
of  hunger  and  promises  them  the  banquet  of  death. 
Cases  of  desertion  are  less  numerous  than  they  were 
with  us,  when  the  old  home  pulled  the  heart-strings, 
or  defeat  demoralized.  Foreign  regularity  of  disci- 
pline, and  ubiquitous  authority,  preserve  an  army's 
solidarity  at  the  expense  of  every  personal  preference. 
But  our  volunteers  were  substantial  elements  of  the 
authority  which  they  obeyed :  and  they  took  the 
field  with  something  that  no  other  soldier  finds  in- 
dispensable to  his  day's  rations,  —  an  independent 
moral  sense,  that  elected  every  situation,  preferred 
each  drawback,  deliberately  proposed  to  see  the  busi- 
ness out,  kept  its  own  sovereign  will  in  command. 
The  best  men  were  centres  of  conscience,  planted 
like  flags  that  have  received  oaths  that  they  shall 
never  touch  the  ground.  The  silent  influence  pene- 
trated into  every  detail,  and  was  the  reenforcement 
that  came  up  in  time,  wherever  defeat  and  unfaith- 
fulness threatened. 

Count  Gurowski,  living  at  Washington,  kept  a 
diary  that  reflects  every  shift  of  the  kaleidoscope 
made  by  variegated  policy  and  the  childish  worry 
of  circumstance.  Its  pages  change  from  rage  to  pity 
at  the  imbecility  of  leaders  and  the  heroic  patience 
of  the  people.  Defeats,  mistakes,  and  absurdities, 
epauletted  ignorance,  red-tape,  and  solemn  trifling,  all 
at  the  expense  of  the  "poor  people,"  —  the  deluded, 
the  fleeced  and  patient  people.  But  they  were  see- 
ing all  the  time   as  much  as  their  critic   did :    they 


2o6  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

s:iw  one  thing  more,  —  namely,  that  to  persevere 
with  what  they  had  was  salvation,  not  to  shriek  and 
declaim  about  what  they  had  not.  Could  foreign 
criticism  generate  great  commanders  for  us?  In 
the  mean  time  the  instinct  of  the  soldier  filled  the 
gaps  where  incompetency  fell  and  vanished.  He 
stepped  into  the  place,  and  showed  his  commission 
till  a  better  one  appeared.  That  was  the  miracle, 
that  the  greatness  and  the  surprise  to  all  the  world. 
He  secured  to  Nature  time  enough  to  grow  her  Gen- 
eral, and  fought  it  out  on  that  line  three  years 
before   he   came. 

In  other  lands,  "the  nerve  of  standing  armies, 
that  which  alone  makes  them  trust-worthy  in  war 
and  harmless  in  peace,  is  an  immovably  true  and 
valorous  body  of  officers."  This  advantage  descended 
probably  from  the  spirit  of  medieval  chivalry,  and 
is  one  of  the  military  traditions  of  Europe.  But  the 
trust-worthiness  which  volunteered  for  us  was  not 
designated  alone  by  shoulder-straps,  it  was  a  con- 
spicuous distinction  of  the  private.  Our  mechanic  had 
no  middle-ages  nourishing  his  blood  with  sentiments 
of  fidelity.  The  oldest  venerable  thing  he  could  recall 
was,  perhaps,  his  mother's  Bible.  But  whatever  con- 
science went  to  make  that  book  was  shared  by  him, 
and  he  could  count  his  ancestors  by  centuries. 

I  knew  a  boy  not  fifteen  years  old,  but  of  a  man's 
stature,  who  tormented  his  parents  to  let  him  enlist. 
But  his  mother  was  reluctant.  If  I  ever  alluded  to 
the  war  in  a  sermon,  he  would  go  home  and  say : 
'' There,  mother !  Did  you  hear  that?  Can  I  stand 
that?  "     On  rainy  nights  he  would  get  out  of  his  win- 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER.  307 

dow  and  pace  up  and  down  before  the  house  with  an 
old  musket  as  if  on  picket  duty,  and  was  delighted 
that  he  could  not  take  cold.  He  was  dull  at  school, 
and  his  tall  head  gathered  the  magisterial  thunder- 
cloud, which  discharged  harmlessly  through  him,  and 
l^rotected  the  rest  of  the  scholars. 

One  day  he  left  the  house,  turning  as  he  went,  and 
simply  saying,  "  Good  morning,  mother."  He  was 
gone  to  the  war.  Before  this  he  had  once  enlisted  at 
a  neighboring  camp,  but  his  father  brought  him  back. 
Now,  under  an  assumed  name,  he  found  his  way  into 
the  Second  Massachusetts  Cavalry,  and  all  trace  of 
him  was  lost  for  a  long  time.  The  mother's  distress 
was  at  last  relieved  by  news  of  him,  and  they  began 
to  correspond.  He  was  perfectly  hapj^y,  but  found 
picket-duty  rather  more  complicated  than  it  was  be- 
fore the  front-yard  at  home. 

One  day  in  the  autumn  he  took  cold  and  lay  dan- 
gerously sick  for  several  weeks.  But  recovering,  he 
went  into  a  skirmish  beyond  Vienna,  was  under  fire, 
always  behaved  well,  and  was  always  supremely 
happy.  One  day  he  took  a  rebel  lieutenant  prisoner, 
and  brought  him   into  camp. 

But  in  a  few  months,  when  the  spring  of  1864 
opened,  there  came  an  ill-spelled  and  scarcely  legible 
letter  from  a  comrade,  announcing  at  once  his  sickness 
and  his  death.  He  died  at  his  post,  for  it  was  on 
picket-duty  that  the  heavy  mud  drew  off  both  his  boots. 
He  could  not  find  them  again  in  the  darkness,  but  con- 
tinued all  the  same  to  pace  his  round.  He  remained 
chilled  and  drenched  till  the  guard  was  relieved,  — 
then,  one  step  to  the  hospital ;  then,  answering  to  his 


-70S  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

name  as  it  went  on  the  roster  of  that  army  which  the 
Lord  recruited  from  ours,  he  was  ordered  to  the  front 
upon  another  service. 

When  he  left  home  he  took  with  him  nothing  but  a 
little  Bible,  a  birthday  present  from  his  mother.  I 
asked  to  have  this  Bible  to  read  from  at  his  funeral. 
On  examining  it  I  found  that  he  had  marked  pas- 
sages, which  his  sense  appropriated,  by  putting  flowers 
between  the  leaves.  There  were  the  dry  Virginian  flow- 
ers, which  had  transferred  to  the  texts  their  sap  and  fra- 
grance. The  old  verses  bloomed  again  in  the  dew  of 
his  youth.  Thus  he  reenforced  Judea  with  America  : 
"  Shall  I  go  and  smite  these  Philistines.^  And  the  Lord 
said  unto  David,  Go."  This  must  have  been  selected 
before  he  went,  and  while  he  pondered  his  act.  There 
was  a  flower  against  David's  magnanimity,  in  i  Sam. 
xxiv.  4,  where  David  cut  off'  Saul's  skirt  and  left  him 
free  to  go.  And  there  was  one  against  Ps.  cv.  42,  43, 
44  :  "  For  he  remembered  his  holy  promise,  and  Abra- 
ham his  servant.  And  he  brought  forth  his  people  with 
joy,  and  his  chosen  with  gladness ;  and  gave  them  the 
lands  of  the  heathen  :  and  they  inherited  the  laboi 
of  the  people,"  —  which  showed  that  he  understood 
the  President,  and  had  his  own  thoughts  on  the  Con- 
traband question.  And  on  carefully  lifting  up  a  rebel 
pansy,  which  stuck  to  Rev.  xiii.  9,  10,  as  if  to  mark 
it,  there  were  words  made  so  apposite  by  his  moral 
selection  as  almost  to  startle  me :  "  If  any  man  hath 
an  ear  to  hear,  let  him  hear.  He  that  leadeth  into 
captivity  shall  go  into  captivity.  He  that  killeth  with 
the  sword  must  be  killed  with  the  sword.  Here  is 
the  patience  and  the  faith  of  the  saints."     So,  in  the 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER. 


309 


fragrance  of  Scripture,  which  his  own  moral  sense 
enhanced,  we  laid  him  away. 

But  it  was  the  plain  honesty  of  such  action  and 
suffering  that  extemporized  a  fresh  page  on  which 
the  divine  in-being  wrote  its  latest  word.  The  boy 
shared  the  instinct  that  withstood,  and  at  last  destroyed, 
the  moral  border-stateism  that  was  at  first  in  favor. 
The  volunteer  answered  to  every  roll-call,  because  he 
felt  that  the  Republic  held  the  list,  pronounced  his 
name,  and  asked  his  life  or  death,  and  was  the  con- 
science that  gave  him  God's  alternative  of  being  on 
his  side  or  against  him.  This  dull,  unburnished 
quality  of  duty  staid  in  the  camp  and  lighted  its  watch- 
fires  long  after  the  first  enthusiasm,  that  filled  our 
streets  and  fused  all  parties,  had  burnt  down  to  the 
brands  of  doubt  and  dismay. 

Perhaps  the  disadvantages  of  the  early  situation 
challenged  this  obscure  moral  power  and  drew  it  to 
the  front.  It  is  not  only  when  a  crowd  sees  treachery 
at  work,  but  when  it  is  expected  also  to  stand  still 
and  watch  the  fumblings  of  incapacity,  that  resolu- 
tion is  gradually  singled  out  and  interferes.  It  is 
difficult  now  to  recall  the  aid  and  comfort  which  trea- 
son borrowed  from  our  own  indift^erence  and  selfish- 
ness. One  month  after  his  first  accession.  President 
Lincoln  said  "  he  wished  he  could  get  time  to  attend 
to  the  Southern  question  ;  he  thought  he  knew  what 
was  wanted,  and  believed  he  could  do  something 
toward  quieting  the  rising  discontent,  but  the  office- 
seekers  demanded  all  his  time.  '  I  am  like  a  man  so 
busy  in  letting  rooms  in  one  end  of  his  house,  that  he 
can't  stop  to  put  out  the  fire  that  is  burning  the  other.'  " 


3IO 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


"  Sitting  here,"  he  continued,  "  where  all  the  ave- 
nues to  public  patronage  seem  to  come  together  in  a 
knot,  it  does  appear  to  me  that  our  people  are  fast 
approaching  the  point  wher?  it  can  be  said  that  seven- 
eighths  of  them  are  trying  to  find  out  how  to  live  at 
the  expense  of  the  other  eighth." 

And  to  his  former  law-partner,  Mr.  Herndon,  he 
said  :  "  If  ever  this  free  people,  if  this  government 
itself,  is  ever  utterly  demoralized,  it  will  come  from 
this  human  wriggle  and  struggle  for  office,  —  that  is,  a 
way  to  live  without  work." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  at 
one  time  taken  suddenly  ill  with  the  varioloid.  After 
recovering,  he  remarked  to  a  friend  that  there  was 
some  satisfaction  in  it,  after  all.  It  was  the  first  time 
since  he  had  been  President  that  he  had  had  any  thing 
he  could  possibly  give,  that  somebody  did  not  want. 

It  puzzled  him  a  good  deal,  at  Washington,  to 
know  and  to  get  at  the  root  of  this  dread  desire,  this 
contagious  disease. of  national  robbery  in  the  country's 
death-struggle.  These  servants  of  the  people  must 
have  appeared  as  Infamous  as  the  menials  who  sack 
the  house  of  a  dying  mistress,  and  greedily  count  the 
rings  upon  her  shrunken  finger.  But  what  must  be 
our  reflection  to  perceive  that  the  abominable  greed 
has  not  been  buried  in  the  graves  of  half  a  million  men, 
but  stands  upon  them  to  scramble  better  into  place. 
The  Assistant  Treasurer  lately  (1869)  discharged  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  clerks  to  economize  the  Treas- 
ury service  ;  and  out  of  the  whole  number  there  were 
one  hundred  that  had  not  even  a  desk  or  a  chair,  or 
any  business   in   the   building.     So   many  families  in 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER.  3II 

Washington  are  decayed,  that  in  order  to  prevent  the 
members  from  being  a  tax  in  ahnshouses  they  are 
made  a  tax  in  the  different  official  bureaus. 

Thus  the  first  campaign  went  on,  with  treason  and 
ravin  fastened  to  the  throat  of  the  country,  incompe- 
tency and  inexperience  hugging  every  limb,  unguarded 
expenditure  and  waste  the  impudent  camp-followers 
of  every  regiment,  and  indefinite  policy  dampening 
every  cartridge.  Into  this  border-land  the  common 
soldier  built  his  road  :  at  one  end  of  it  a  hearthstone 
that  flickered  more  tremulously  than  ever  with  en- 
deared life-breaths,  at  the  other  —  he  could  not  see 
the  head-board  at  Andersonville  and  Salisbury  at  the 
other  end,  with  the  road  thither  blazed  by  the  edge 
of  battle.  But  he  went  on,  after  he  had  discovered 
the  piteous  direction  of  his  route,  and  had  missed  so 
many  comrades  at  the  morning-call  that  he  might 
wonder  at  his  exemption.  He  heard  the  drum  ahead  : 
no  fog  of  policy  could  stifle  the  crisp  rolling  that 
voiced  the  peremptoriness  of  his  plain  purpose. 
McClellan  was  held  at  telescopic  range  by  the  Qiiaker 
guns  at  Manassas,  went  into  burrows  at  Yorktown, 
and  at  length  drifted  out  of  history  by  clinging  to  the 
planks  of  a  Chicago  platform,  torn  apart  by  a  rail- 
splitter's  hand.  The  drums  grew  fainter  on  his  ear, 
with  every  stroke  of  the  pickaxe  and  shovel  that  in- 
trenched him  beyond  their  vibrations.  He,  and  all 
the  other  Napoleons  of  the  epoch,  went  where  there 
was  no  chance  to  count  delay  by  the  dropping  of 
blood  into  hesitating  palms,  and  no  securing  of  policy 
by  selling  out  Liberty's  marble  to  be  converted  into 
erave  stones.     But   the  volunteer's   well-fibred    heart 


313 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


Still  held  together  the  ravelled  line,  and  its  pulse  kept 
time  with  the  drum-beat  that  grew  more  and  more 
expressive,  more  intelligent  with  the  practice  of  lib- 
erty. 

We  have  forgotten  the  weeks  and  months  of  popu- 
lar depression,  when  the  public  officials  who  were 
nearest  to  the  seat  of  government,  or  who  came  back 
from  a  visit  to  Washington,  where  the  heavy  details 
of  mistake  and  disaster  told  upon  the  temper,  gave  up 
the  cause  for  lost.  At  periods  when  voluntariness 
was  dying  out  of  volunteers  themselves,  and  depres- 
sion or  routine  brought  in  moments  of  reaction,  when 
the  mismanagement  of  the  politicians  bred  disgust, 
our  fate  lay  in  the  hands  of  these  men,  who  rallied 
instantly  at  the  approach  of  genuine  danger,  and  were 
disinfected  of  their  doubts  by  the  prospect  of  death. 
One  thing  alone,  presumably  enough  to  demoralize 
the  firmest  men,  was  the  selfish  persistence  of  the 
Northern  papers  in  reporting,  as  fast  as  their  eager 
and  unscrupulous  correspondents  could  gather  the 
facts,  the  number  of  our  troops,  their  positions,  their 
probable  movements,  and  the  projects  for  a  campaign. 
This  was  done  that  the  streets  of  our  cities  might  be 
filled  with  the  cry  of  "  Extras,"  fresh  editions  every 
liour,  to  build  up  great  newspaper  establishments  out 
of  the  peril  of  thus  imparting  information  to  the 
vSouth.  The  Southern  officers  used  to  say  that  they 
depended  upon  the  North  for  cheap  and  accurate  in- 
formation—  since  our  papers  went  into  the  rebel  lines. 
They  were  worth  to  the  South  half  the  number  of 
troops  which  they  reported,  and  whose  positions  and 
movements  tlicy  unmasked. 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER.  313 

But  the  common  soldier  added  the  load  of  this 
selfishness  to  his  knapsack,  where  it  hung  with  the 
other  errors  and  meannesses  that  found  in  war  their 
opportunity.  The  weight,  however,  did  not  overtax 
him  ;  and  military  writers  will  have  to  make  a  fresh 
estimate  of  the  number  of  pounds  which  a  soldier  can 
carry  into  battle  or  upon  a  march.  For  although  our 
determination  buoyed  up  his  heart,  our  delaying  and 
distracted  measures,  our  shoddy  contracts,  our  super- 
fluous expenditures,  our  bickering  and  political  ma- 
ncEuvring,  clung,  like  a  ball  and  chain,  to  every  step 
of  his  advance. 

A  day  or  two  after  the  needless  bloodshed  of  Ball's 
Bluff,  where  some  one  had  evidently  blundered  by 
sending  our  men  across  the  Potomac  in  a  couple  of 
leaky  flat-boats,  to  form  in  the  presence  of  an  enemy 
that  already  exulted  to  see  the  advantage  of  fighting 
soldiers  who  had  the  river  in  their  rear,  and  the  two 
boats  the  only  means  for  retreating,  —  a  Massachusetts 
corporal,  picket-guard  at  the  river,  seeing  a  rebel  pre- 
paring to  bathe  from  the  opposite  bank,  shouted  out 
to  him,  "  Take  your  feet  out  of  my  river-,  or  I'll  shoot 
you  !  "  When  we  doubted  whether  we  should  long 
own  the  Schuylkill  and  Hudson,  the  common  soldier's 
geography  never  misgave  him  that  all  the  streams, 
from  the  lakes  to  the  Gulf,  ran  to  transact  the  com- 
merce of  Liberty.  The  sense  of  ownership  was  as 
vivid  after  a  defeat,  and  loss  of  ground,  as  when  a 
great  victory  suddenly  put  us  in  possession  of  a 
State. 

We  used  to  mingle  a  good  deal  of  exultation  with 
the  surprise  we  felt  to  see   how  easily  a  government, 

H 


H 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


without  despotic  measures,  kept  in  the  field  armies 
greater  than  any  which  have  waged  the  battles  of  the 
Old  World,  armed,  victualled,  clothed,  recruited  them, 
tended  their  sick  and  wounded,  held  the  regimental 
deaths  at  a  figure  lower  than  is  confessed  by  the  med- 
ical statistics  of  England,  France  and  Russia,  moved 
the  men  from  point  to  point  rapidly  and  comfortably 
b}'^  such  transport-service  as  was  never  before  organ- 
ized for  military  operations,  delivered  an  army  by 
express,  set  it  down  on  time,  with  all  its  trains  and 
baggage,  —  the  whole  field-service  developed  from 
that  which  corresponded  to  10,000  men  to  that 
which  cared  for  750,000,  the  naval  arm  at  the  same 
time  raised  from  5,000  to  75,000,  and  vessels  of  novel 
and  superior  construction  added,  to  the  number  of 
"  558  steamers,  with  an  aggregate  tonnage  of  408,000 
tons  against  the  original  26  steamers  and  49,700  tons." 
But  the  country  which  sprang  from  a  positively  supine 
and  dismantled  condition  into  that  attitude  of  vigor 
owed  it  all  to  common  talent  and  invention :  and  the 
men  we  undertook  to  transport  were  not  machines. 
The  intelligence  we  moved  from  point  to  point  was  a 
part  of  the  motive-power.  The  individuality  which 
flew  apart  to  grumble  and  criticise  —  as  Washington 
made  complaint  was  the  vice  of  the  New-England 
men  in  his  time  —  came  together  when  the  bugle  cut 
it  short,  and  every  private  was  Uncle  Sam's  head  man. 
vSo  that  when  we  saw  an  armed  man  in  the  street,  we 
only  saw  ourselves  made  emphatic  :  he  was  our  de- 
liberate purpose  to  have  our  riglits  respected.  Our 
moral  indignation  was  uniformed,  equipped,  and  re- 
ceived rations  in  him.     When  his  steel  glittered  in  the 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER.  315 

front,  it  was  the  flash  of  our  eyes  in  search  of  treason  : 
every  cannon's  flame  was  the  tongue  of  our  retort 
against  the  owners  and  despisers  of  men.  If  you 
would  have  measured  the  manly  sincerity  which  those 
years  of  trial  brought  out  of  the  bosom  of  the  people, 
you  would  have  had  to  sail  with  every  steamer  and 
to  march  with  every  corps,  computing  your  steps  by 
thousands  of  miles  of  sea  and  land,  not  to  return  till 
you  had  visited  every  picket-guard  and  signal  station. 
Your  journey  would  lie  through  the  hearts  of  the  men 
before  you  had  inspected  all  the  posts  of  Liberty.  You 
should  have  been  blood  itself  to  travel  through  the 
new  America.  Depth  of  conviction,  tenderness  of 
feeling,  trust  in  God,  newness  of  life  —  that  was  your 
Country. 

Hear  a  woman,*  who  was  at  the  time  superintend- 
ent of  a  hospital,  describe  how  Burnside's  men  went  into 
battle.  As  they  passed  the  Hospital,  "  they  marched 
at  ease,  laughing,  singing,  calling  out  now  and  then, 
'  Good-by,  ladies,  good-by  ! '  One  tall  fellow  dipped 
his  tin  cup  in  a  little  spring  by  the  road-side  and 
drank  our  healths  in  passing.  '  Ave  Ccesar^^  f  said 
the  Surgeon  in  charge,  '  fnot'ituri  te  sahitant.^  The 
sod  was  thick  with  violets,  and  bunches  of  them  were 
stuck  in  many  caps  and  coats.  A  soldier  took  the 
cluster  from  his  cap-band  and  gave  it  to  me.  G.  un- 
fastened a  little  gilded  horse-shoe  from  her  chain  and 

*  I  quote  from  an  admirable  pamphlet,  privately  printed, 
entitled  "  Hospital  Days." 

t  The  cry  of  the  Roman  gladiators  to  the  emperor,  as  they 
entered  the  arena:  "Hail,  Ceesar!  those  about  to  die  salute 
thee !  " 


3l6  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

tied  it,  by  the  blue  ribbon,  in  his  coat.  He  lifted  his 
cap  :  '  This  will  keep  me  safe  in  the  next  battle  ;  I  did 
not  expect  such  good  luck  in  Virginia.'  One  com- 
pany was  singing  in  parts,  —  . 

'  Rally  round  the  Flag,  boys, 
Rally  once  again  I ' 

So  they  passed,  marching  and  singing,  the  bayonets 
disappearing  at  last  southward  in  the  spring  sunshine, 
in  the  dust  of  the  Leesburg  pike." 

She  also  describes  the  passage  of  the  Eighth  N.  Y. 
Heavy  Artillery,  in  May,  1864,  through  Fredericks- 
burg, where  our  troops  had  previously  received  a  far 
different  greeting.  ''  In  the  headstall  of  Col.  Peter 
Porter's  horse  we  fastened  a  knot  of  roses,  and  tossed 
roses  and  snow-balls  in  showers  over  the  men.  They 
were  delighted.  ''In  Frede7'icksbu7'gl^  they  said. 
'  Oh,  give  me  one  :  pray,  give  me  one  ! '  —  'I  will 
carry  it  into  the  fight  for  you  ; '  and  another,  who 
was  a  lieutenant,  cried,  cheerily,  '  I  will  bring  it 
back  again.* 

*'  Three  days  afterwards  the  ambulances  came,  and 
in  them  came  some  of  the  same  men,  shattered,  dying, 
dead.  We  went  out,  but  this  time  it  was  with  pails 
of  soup  and  milk-punch.  One  and  another  recognized 
us  —  all  were  cheery  enough.  'A  different  coming 
back,  ma'am.'  —  'No  roses  to-day?' — And  one  said, 
pointing  over  his  shoulder,  '  The  Lieutenant  is  there 
on  the  stretcher,  and  he's  brought  back  the  flowers  as 
he  promised.'  I  went  to  the  side,  hoping  to  help  a 
wounded  man.  The  lieutenant  lay  dead,  with  a  bunch 
of  dead  roses  in  the  breast  of  his  coat." 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER.  317 

The  love  of  these  rough  men  for  loses  blossomed  even 
in  their  dreams.  A  German  called  G.  to  his  bedside 
one  morning  to  tell  her  his  dream  of  her.  "  Last  night 
I  dreamed,"  he  said,  "  that  I  was  walking  by  myself  in 
a  great  city  and  came  to  a  bridge  over  a  deep  river. 
As  I  crossed  the  bridge  it  broke  and  I  fell  into  the 
water,  and  was  sinking,  when  you  came  and  drew  me 
to  land.  I  was  all  dripping,  and  you  took  me  to  your 
own  house  and  gave  me  a  whole  new  suit  of  clothes, 
all  dry  and  warm.  Then  you  said,  '  You  may  go  into 
the  garden  and  take  a  flower ;  take  any  flower  you 
like.'  So  I  took  a  rose  ;  but  as  I  was  picking  it  I  died 
and  went  to  heaven.  You  called  aloud  to  me,  '  Don't 
drop  the  rose  ;  take  it  with  you  and  plant  it  in  heaven 
for  me.'  So  I  went  to  heaven  and  planted  it,  and  it 
grew  and  blossomed.  And  when  the  blossoms  came 
I  sent  you  down  word,  and  you  died  and  came  to 
heaven,  and  found  there  all  ready  a  rose-tree  bloom- 
ing for  you." 

A  friend  of  mine  pillaged  Mrs.  Scott's  garden  in 
Fredericksburg  of  its  various  flowers,  and  made  the 
tour  of  the  hospitals,  to  lay  one  upon  each  pillow  of 
the  wounded  and  dying.  Those  who  were  too  far 
gone  to  speak  sent  up  to  him  such  gratitude  from  their 
eyes  that  they  haunt  him  still  with  its  precious  quality. 
Others  said  feebly,  "  Move  it  nearer  to  me,  let  it  touch 
my  cheek  —  I  want  to  feel  it." 

A  nurse  carries  a  bunch  of  the  first  lilacs  to  a  very 
sick  New-England  soldier.  "  Now  I've  got  something 
for  you,"  I  said,  holding  them  behind  me,  "just  like 
what  grows  in  your  front  door-yard  at  home  :  guess  !  " 
"  Lalocs,"   he  whispered ;    and    I    laid    them    on    his 


3l8  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

folded  hands.     "  Oh,  Lalocs !     How  did   you   know- 
that?*      The  Hlacs  outlived  him. 

"J.  D.  was  brought  in,  far  gone  in  fever,  and 
speechless.  In  his  pocket  were  found  a  red  morocco 
Testament,  and  a  poor  little  note-book,  half  soaked 
through  with  rain  or  swamp-damp,  in  which  a  few 
wandering  pencil-notes  were  still  legible,  and  this  little 
couplet  altered  from  an  old  song :  — 

"  Not  a  sigh  shall  tell  my  story, 
Silent  death  shall  be  my  glory. ^^ 

I  will  match  that  last  line  against  the  lines  on  whose 
simple  feeling  great  poets  have  been  floated  into  fame. 
And  what  tender  trustfulness  breathes  through  these 
lines  of  an  unknown  man,  S S ,  a  Massachu- 
setts sergeant : — 

"  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep, 

With  little  thought  or  care. 
Whether  my  waking  find 
Me  here  —  or  There  I 

A  bowing,  burdened  head, 

That  only  asks  to  rest, 
Unquestioning,  upon 

A  loving  breast. 

My  good  right  hand  forgets 

Its  cunning  now  — 
To  march  the  weary  march 

I  know  not  how. 

I  am  not  eager,  bold, 

Nor  strong  —  all  that  is  past: 

I  am  ready  Not  To  Do 
At  last  — at  last! 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER.  319 

Mj  half-da3''s  work  is  done, 

And  this  is  all  my  part: 
I  give  a  patient  God 

My  patient  heart, 

And  grasp  his  banner  still, 
Though  all  its  blue  be  dim; 

These  stripes,  no  less  than  stars, 
Lead  after  Him." 

But  we  must  not  forget  the  prison  relics.  "  What 
hospital  nurse  has  not  a  bone-ring  or  trinket  carved 
by  her  men  in  the  wards  or  in  prison?"  One  gave  a 
white  cross,  saying:  '"I  thought  of  putting  your 
initials  on  it,  but  I  could  not  bring  myself  to  put  even 
yours  on  any  thing  of  that  shape."  But  the  country 
can  bring  itself  to  that.  No  form  so  appealing,  with 
all  its  associations,  as  the  cross,  that  seems  to  crave 
of  us  to  chisel  upon  it  the  names  of  all  those  faithful 
and  comforting  nurses,  who  bore  God's  pity  to  the 
edge  of  the  wrath  of  battle. 

A  soldier,  just  dying,  felt  the  arms  of  his  nurse 
around  him,  and  he  feebly  whispered,  "  Underneath 
are  the  Everlasting  Arms."  Which  did  he  mean, 
God,  or  the  "  everlasting  womanly"  that  exalts  a  line 
of  Goethe?  T'Ae  one  was  the  othei'.  And  a  nurse 
says  that,  as  she  ministered  the  last  wants  to  a  death- 
struck  man,  he  rallied,  looked  up  at  her,  and  exclaimed 
with  all  the  power  he  had  left,  "  You  are  the  God- 
blessedest  woman  I  ever  saw  !"  It  was  religion,  like 
that  of  the  Chevalier  Bunsen,  who  was  not  too  culti- 
vated in  theology  to  confess  to  his  wife  in  the  moment 
of  death  :  "  In  thy  face  have  I  beheld  the  Eternal." 
Not  only  America,  but  God  was  with  Woman  in  the 


320 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


camp,  and  the  illiterate  soldier  recognized  the  face 
of  his  redemption. 

One  of  those  mediating  women  said  :  "  Let  those 
who  have  one  of  the  prison  rings  with  two  clasped 
hands,  that  mean,  True  till  Deaths  keep  it  as  a  sacred 
relic.  It  is  the  prison  sign.  The  fashion  seemed  to 
travel  underground.  I  have  had  it  from  Texas,  At- 
lanta, Columbia,  Belle-Isle,  Andersonville.  It  is  as 
characteristic  as  the  palm  branch  of  the  Catacombs." 

This  tender  temper  of  flowers  and  of  the  cross  be- 
longed to  our  men  who  breasted  Petersburg,  walled 
Vicksburg  in  with  fire,  cast  off  at  Atlanta  and  felt  their 
way  to  the  sea,  took  Mission  Ridge  at  a  single  run 
through  scorching  flame,  and,  as  one  of  them  said, 
"  saw  God  at  Chattanooga."  Flowers  will  never  grow 
next  spring  as  generous  with  red  as  they  were  with 
their  blood,  nor  any  so  white  as  their  honorable  record. 

But  their  humor  matched  their  tenderness.  Short  ra- 
tions, long  delays,  attacks  repulsed,  nothing  quenched 
it.  The  humor  was  a  kind  of  bunting  run  up  by 
the  spirit  to  apprize  the  neighborhood  that  it  still 
lived,  and  to  signal  to  the  country  that  it  was  about 
to  move  on  the  enemy. 

This  elastic  vein  threw  off  the  weight  of  the  most 
threatening  situations,  and  extemporized  a  climate  in 
the  worst  of  weather.  At  one  time,  before  Vicksburg, 
our  fortune  touched  its  ebb  ;  repeated  assaults,  drench- 
ing rains  and  failing  commissariat,  seemed  to  portend 
that  the  soldier's  hand  would  be  too  feeble  to  turn  the 
key  of  the  Mississippi.  It  was  just  the  time  he  selected 
to  have  his  lightest  heart  and  most  outrageous  humor. 
Nothing  was  too  high  to  be  its  victim.     A  tall  officer 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER.  32I 

trotting  by  on  a  little  mule,  beneath  an  enormous 
beaver,  received  the  running  fire  of  the  whole  line : 
"  Come  down  out  of  that  hat !  I  know  you're 
there  —  I  see  your  boots."  The  bad  rations  gave 
them  exquisite  advantage.  One  man,  who  had  with 
great  labor  consumed  a  very  hard  biscuit,  said,  in 
reply  to  a  question  why  he  stood  in  the  rain,  "  he  had 
just  eaten  a  biscuit,  and  wanted  to  see  if  he  couldn't 
swell  it." 

And  as  the  Confederate  troops  could  not  by  rebelling 
secede  from  the  solidarity  of  food,  I  must  confess  that 
they  too  found  humor  a  substitute.  For  humor  is  a 
brace  which  tightens  around  all  empty  stomachs  alike, 
till  the  laugh  pretends  to  fill  them.  Gen.  "  Allegha- 
ny "  Johnston,  on  the  march  to  Bristow  Station,  in  the 
fall  of  1S63,  saw  one  of  his  men  upon  a  persimmon 
tree.  "  What  are  you  doing  up  there  —  why  arn't 
you  with  your  regiment?"  "I  am  getting  'simmons, 
I  am,"  replied  the  soldier.  "  Persimmons  !  They're 
not  ripe  yet  —  they're  too  bitter  to  eat."  "Yes,  but 
general,"  persisted  the  Confederate,  "  I  am  trying  to 
draw  my  stomach  up  to  suit  the  size  of  my  rations. 
If  it  stays  like  it  is  now,  I  shall  starve." 

During  the  forlorn  circumstances  around  Vicksburg, 
the  time  of  the  17th  Corps  expired.  Did  it  take  the 
opportunity  to  escape  ?  It  was  entitled  to  thirty  days 
furlousr-h  if  it  would  reenlist.  It  reenlisted  to  a  man  ; 
and  then  played  upon  the  enemy  the  capital  bit  of 
irony  of  taking  the  furlough  in  the  State  itself  of  Mis- 
sissippi, which  then  belonged  to  the  rebellion. 

This  gayety  was  not  cynical  and  obdurate.  When 
at  Atlanta,  letters  arrived  from  wives  and  sisters  who 

14* 


322 


AMERIOAN    RELIGION. 


were  starving  upon  the  neglected  farms,  and  urged  the 
men  to  return.  They,  knowing  in  many  cases  the  des- 
titution of  their  relatives,  turned  aside  to  read,  that  no 
eye  might  see  what  dropped  from  theirs  :  then  slung 
the  knapsack  again  to  help  Sherman  conquer  daily 
bread  for  4,000,000  men. 

The  irrepressible  humor  spilled  over  into  the  sad- 
ness of  hospital  life,  in  spite  of  chaplains  who  ap- 
prized the  men  that  death  was  waiting  for  them  all, 
and  who  would  occasionally  prolong  the  subject  till 
the  usual  afternoon  funeral  passed  by,  then  bring  it  in 
neatly,  —  "  Even  now  one  of  your  comrades  is  being 
carried  to  the  grave." 

Hilarit}'  was  certainly  pardonable  if  possible.  Once, 
at  least,  this  vestry-vein  was  interrupted.  A  lady 
writes :  "  I  was  present  at  a  meeting  when  a  Defender 
rose  and  said  he  wished  to  confess  to  the  brethren 
some  particulars  of  a  sinful  life.  There  was  once,  in 
such  a  town,  a  godless  3'outh,  he  said,  and  went  on 
to  paint  his  career :  how  at  the  age  of  twelve  he 
smoked  cigars  and  threw  the  Bible  at  his  grandmother ; 
at  fourteen  he  played  tenpins  and  went  sailing  on  Sun- 
day;  at  sixteen  he  ran  away  from  home,  &c.,  &c. ; 
and  when  we  expected  the  usual  conclusion,  '  And  I 
who  address  you  to-night,  my  friends,  am  that  forsaken 
lad,'  he  surprised  us  by  clapping  his  nand  on  the 
shoulder  of  an  innocent,  blushing  youth  in  front  of 
him,  one  of  the  steadiest  boys  in  camp,  and  shouting 
his  climax,  '  Which  his  name  is  Asy  Allen,  and  here 
he  sets!'" 

The  nurses  were  not  backward  to  encouraofe  the 
propriety  of  a  jest.     Mrs.  Olnhausen,  who  added  the 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER. 


323 


practice  of  surgery  to  her  admirable  qualities  as  a 
nurse,  took  oft'  half  a  leg  from  an  Irishman.  He 
asked  her,  "  Nurse,  d'ye  think  any  young-  girl  would 
marry  me  now?  "  She  told  him  she  did  not  think  he 
had  quite  so  good  a  chance  as  if  he  had  both  legs  off. 

The  pith  of  all  these  various  characteristics  of 
talent,  temper,  and  moral  feeling,  was  religious ;  and 
the  true  church  of  the  country  was  detailed  from  all 
the  meeting-houses,  went  into  the  wilderness  and  lived 
four  years  under  tents,  where  each  creed  was  allowed 
but  its  minimum  of  baggage,  and  the  soul,  reduced 
to  marching  rations,  pro^ohecied  and  prepared  the 
way  of  the  Lord. 

"  For  my  part,"  said  Napoleon  I.,  "  it  is  not  the 
mystery  of  the  Incarnation  which  I  discover  in  reli- 
gion, but  the  mystery  of  Social  Order,  which  con- 
nects with  Heaven  an  idea  of  equality  which  prevents 
the  rich  from  destroying  the  poor." 

How  well  this  sentiment  of  a  great  soldier  was 
illustrated  by  the  faith  which  lay  hidden  by  the  theol- 
ogy of  Lieut.-Col.  Wilder  Dwight.  He  was  mortally 
wounded  at  Antietam,  and  the  chaplain  visits  him  for 
the  last  time.* 

*  The  brave  and  self-sacrificing  Chaplain  Quint,  now  of 
New  Bedford,  cannot  be  classed  with  the  mortuary  ministers 
who  added  a  new  terror  to  death.  His  visits  were  those  of  a 
friend  who  remembered  the  home-keeping  mothers.  Here  is 
a  different  style,  a  specimen  of  Un-American  religion  :  "  Do 
you  believe  in  a  future  state?  Yes:  well,  ah,  then  you  hope 
for  better  things,  there;  ah,  yes:  you  will  die  happy  —  good 
morning,  brother."  How  many  convalescents  did  this  tainted 
diet  carry  off .''  It  is  no  less  destructive  at  home,  where  its  un- 
wholesomeness  is  adroitly  concealed  by  the  bed-side  rhetoric 
of  the  practitioners. 


324 


AMERICAN    RELIGION. 


"  After  looking  me  earnestly  in  the  face, '  Chaplain,' 
said  he,  'I  cannot  distinguish  your  features:  what 
more  you  have  to  say  to  me,  say  now.'  (I  had,  of 
course,  remembered  his  dying  condition,  and  conversed 
accordingly.)  I  said,  '  Colonel,  do  you  trust  in  God?' 
He  answered,  with  ready  firmness  and  cheerfulness, 
'/  do.^  '  And  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  your  Saviour } ' 
'/  do.^  '  Then,'  said  I,  '  there  is  no  7ieed  of  saying 
more.' " 

But  what  if  he  had  said,  "  I  do  not ! "  Could  such 
a  technical  denial  expunge  the  record  of  a  faithful  man, 
or  alarm  the  Divine  Being  who  had  been  the  life- 
breath  of  his  whole  devoted  career  .f"  There  is  One 
who  accepts  the  religion  which  obeys  the  orders  for 
the  day  ;  its  voice  drowns  the  phrases  of  all  our  men- 
tal methods,  so  that  the  Infinite  must  be  glad  that  it 
cannot  overhear. 

Doubtless  his  friendly  chaplain  would  allege  that 
the  soldier's  service  was  the  result  of  his  belief  in 
a  supernatural  mediator,  and  that  he  could  neither 
have  denied  its  source  nor  derived  it  by  any  other 
method.  If  so,  then  there  could  have  been  no  service 
in  the  army  save  upon  condition  of  this  prelimi- 
nary belief.  The  campaigns  are  themselves  the  con- 
tradiction of  this  narrow  view ;  for  the  unbelievers 
in  an  atoning  sacrifice  offered  up  themselves  to  be 
a  ransom  for  many,  with  a  heartiness  that  the  stiffest 
churchmen  never  surpassed.  Conscience  and  hardi- 
hood had  reached  the  camp  by  no  miraculous  transpor- 
tation, and  bade  the  creeds  stand  aside  to  let  Religion 
reach  the  front.  Cowardice  and  shirking  came  too, 
and  illustrated  their  independence  of  theology.     It  is 


THE    AMERICAN    SOLDIER.  325 

strange  the  theologians  cannot  see  that  the  war  has  been 
a  denial,  of  the  most  sublime  and  impressive  kind,  of 
the  necessity  of  their  supernatural  schemes.  This  les- 
son of  the  divine  impartiality  stands  by  the  side  of 
emancipation  to  attract  the  regards  of  a  grateful  coun- 
try, and  to  modify  its  future.  Valor,  and  duty  unto 
death,  have  passed  into  the  consciousness  of  America  ; 
they  surv'ive  there  as  perpetual  witnesses  against  the 
wretched  obtrusivencss  of  miracle  and  dosfma. 

But  Chaplain  Qiiint  reached  the  heart  of  the  matter, 
and  doubtless  of  his  own  prevailing  view  in  holding 
this  last  conversation,  when  he  said :  "  Now  what 
shall  I  say  to  your  mother.?  He  answered,  with  his 
whole  face  lighted  up,  '  My  mother !  Tell  her  /  do 
love  my  mother^  ( He  emphasized  every  word.) 
'  Tell  her  /  do  trust  in  God^  1  do  trust  in  the  Lord 
Jesus.' " 

His  mother  was  the  divine  life  that  kindled  that 
dying  flame,  and  blew  it  across  the  sinking  face  to 
animate  it  into  a  last  expression  of  immortal  confi- 
dence. Such  sons,  if  any,  are  born  of  an  immaculate 
conception.  It  is  the  constantly  repeated  miracle  of 
lives  that  are  unselfishly  devoted  to  the  service  of  lib- 
eral and  emancipating  principles.  He  had  previously 
said,  "  He  was  ready  to  die.  As  for  the  future, 
there  was  but  one  hope :  no  putting  forward  of  one's 
own  claims,  but  reliance  on  the  merits  of  Another" 
Thus  spoke  the  traditionally  nurtured  intellect  of  one 
whose  practical  life  illustrated  self-reliance  in  the 
camp  and  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  the  happiness 
of  being  well-born  into  an  inheritance  of  cheerfulness, 
valor,  and  devotedness.      He  was  a  model  to  officer 


326  AMERICAN    RELIGION. 

and  private,  and  in  the  blackest  hour  always  prophe- 
cied  that  the  dawn  was  breaking.  One  of  his  last 
requests  was  that  the  flag  might  be  brought  to  him, 
and  that  the  regimental  band,  would  play  the  "  Star- 
Spangled  Banner."  As  the  strains  ceased,  he  repeated 
the  last  line,  and  said  fervently,  "  I  hope  that  glori- 
ous old  flag  will  wave  over  this  whole  country  again. 
So  may  it  be  !  So  shall  it  be  I "  And  so  it  will  be, 
not  through  the  effect  of  his  technical  religion,  but 
through  the  conquering  power  of  such  personal  faith 
and  self-surrender.  How  the  pet  phrases  of  the  differ- 
ent denominations  crumble  like  moth-eaten  paper  away 
from  the  touch,  as  we  turn  to  slake  our  thirst  with 
the  blood  of  his  mortal  wound  and  the  tears  of  his 
mother ! 

What  shall  we  exact  as  the  ransom  of  the  glorious 
bitterness  of  these  recollections.'*  That  the  flas:  shall 
wave  over  a  completed  freedom,  such  as  the  natural 
religion  of  the  soldiers'  hearts  inspired  them  to  expect. 
They  must  not  be  balked  of  their  expectation.  "  Wher- 
ever the  army  goes,"  said  Dwight,  "  there  springs  up 
emancipation."  But  that  is  a  plant  without  a  blossom, 
and  promise  of  no  fruit,  till  every  prejudice  has  been 
drowned  in  the  memory  of  soldiers'  blood,  that  perfect 
equality  and  opportunity  may  range  the  poorest  and 
most  proscribed  men  in  the  country  by  the  side  of  her 
true  interests,  and  we  all  step  together,  over  the  graves 
of  our  heroes,  to  the  strains  of  moral  union,  to  take  pos- 
session of  that  future  when  not  one  rebel  shall  be  left 
to  think  meanly  of  our  dead. 


ARTHUR  HELPS'S  WRITINGS. 


1.  REALMAH.     A  Story.     Price  $2.00. 

2.  CASIMIR  MAREMMA.    A  Novel.     Price  $2.00. 

3.  COMPANIONS   OF  MY   SOLITUDE.     Price  $1.50. 

4.  ESSAYS  WRITTEN  IN  THE  INTERVALS  OF  BUS 

INESS.     Price  $1.50. 
«;.  BREVIA     Short  Essays  and  Aphorisms.     Price  $1.50. 

From  the  London  Review. 

'Ihe  tale  (Realmah)  is  a  comparatively  brief  one,  intersected  by  tlie 
conversations  of  a  variety  of  able  personages,  with  most  of  whose  names 
and  cliuracters  we  are  already  familiar  through  '  Friends  in  Council.' 
Looking  at  it  in  connection  with  the  social  and  political  lessons  tliat  are 
wrapt  up  in  it,  wc  may  fairly  attribute  to  it  a  higher  value  tlian  could  pos- 
sibly attach  to  a  common  piece  of  fiction." 

From  a  Notice  by  Miss  E.  M.  Converse. 

"There  are  many  reasons  why  we  like  this  irregular  book  (Realmah),  in 
which  we  should  find  the  dialogue  tedious  without  the  story;  the  story  dull 
v?ithout  the  dialogue;  and  the  whole  unmeaning,  unless  we  discerned  the 
purpose  of  the  author  underlying  the  lines,  and  interweaving,  now  here, 
now  there,  a  criticism,  a  suggestion,  an  aphorism,  a  quaint  illustration,  an 
exhortation,  a  metaphysical  deduction,  or  a  moral  inference. 

"  We  like  a  book  in  which  we  are  not  bound  to  read  consecutively,  whose 
leaves  ^ve  can  turn  at  pleasure  and  find  on  every  page  something  to  amuse, 
interest,  and  instruct.  It  is  like  a  charming  \valk  in  the  woods  in  early 
summer,  where  we  are  attracted  now  to  a  lowly  flower  half  hidden  under 
soft  moss ;  now  to  a  shrub  brilliant  with  sho\\'y  blossoms ;  now  to  the  gran- 
deur of  a  spreading  tree;  now  to  a  bit  o*"  fleecy  cloud;  and  now  to  the  blue 
of  the  overarching  sky. 

"We  gladly  place  '  Realmah '  on  the  '  book-lined  wall,' by  the  side  of 
other  chosen  friends,  —  the  sharp,  terse  sayings  of  the  '  Doctor ';  the  sug- 
gestive utterances  of  the  *  Xoctes';  the  sparkling  and  brilliant  thoughts  of 
'Montaigne';  and  the  gentle  teachings  of  the  charming  '  Elia.''' 
From  a  Notice  by  Miss  H.   W.  Preston. 

•'  It  must  be  because  the  reading  world  is  unregenerate  that  Arthur  Helps 
Is  not  a  general  favorite.  Somebody  once  said  (was  it  Ruskin,  at  whose 
imperious  order  so  many  of  us  read  '  Friends  in  Council,'  a  dozen  years 
ago?)  that  appreciation  of  Helps  is  a  sure  test  of  culture.  Not  so  much 
tliat,  one  may  suggest,  as  of  a  certain  native  fineness  and  excellence  of 
mind.  The  impression  prevails  among  some  of  tliose  who  do  not  read  him, 
that  Helps  is  a  hard  writer.  Nothing  could  be  more  erroneous.  His  man- 
ner is  simplicity  itself;  his  speech  always  winning,  and  of  a  silvery  dis- 
tinctness. There  are  hosts  of  ravenous  readers,  lively  and  capable,  who, 
if  their  vague  prejudice  were  removed,  would  exceedingly  enjoy  the  gentle 
wit,  the  unassuming  wisdom,  and  the  refreshing  originality  of  the  author 
in  question.  There  are  men  and  women,  mostly  young,  with  souls  that 
sometimes  weary  of  the  serials,  who  need  nothing  so  much  as  a  persuasive 
guide  to  the  study  of  worthier  and  more  enduring  literature.  For  most  of 
those  who  rend  novels  with  avidity  are  capable  of  reading  something  else 
with  avidity,  if  they  only  knew  it.  And  such  a  guide,  and  pleasantest  of  all 
such  guides,  is  Arthur  I'lelps.  *  *  Yet 'Casiirrir  Maremma' is  a  charming 
book,  and,  better  still,  invigorating.  Try  it.  You  are  going  into  tlie  country 
for  the  summer  months  that  remain.  Have  '  Casimir' with  you,  and  liave 
<  Realmah,'  too.  The  former  is  the  plcasanter  book,  the  latter  the  more  pow« 
erful.  But  if  you  like  one  you  will  like  the  other.  At  the  least  you  will  rise 
from  their  perusal  witli  a  grateful  sense  of  having  been  received  for  a  time 
into  a  select  and  happy  circle,  where  intellectual  breeding  is  perfect,  and  the 
struggle  for  brilliancy  unknown. 

Sold  everywhere.     Mailed,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  adver- 
tised price,  by  the  Publishers, 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS,  Boston. 


THE  HANDY  VOLUME  SERIES. 


Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers  propose  to  issue,  under  the  above 
hcafliiif]^,  a  Series  of  Handy  Volumes,  which  shall  be  at  once  various, 
valuable,  and  popular,  —  their  size  a  most  convenient  one,  their  typogra- 
phy of  the  very  best,  and  iheir  price  extremely  low.  They  will  enter- 
tain the  reader  with  poetry  ae  well  as  with  prose;  now  with  fiction,  then 
with  fact;  here  with  narration,  there  with  inquiry;  in  some  cases  with 
the  works  of  living  authors,  in.  others  with  the  works  of  those  long  since 
dead.  It  is  hoped  that  they  will  prove  to  be  either  amusing  or  instruc- 
tive, sometimes  curious,  often  valuable,  always  handy.  Each  Volume 
will,  as  a  rule,  form  a  work  complete  in  itself. 


THE   HANDY    VOLUME    SERIES. 

1. 

HAPPY  THOUGHTS.  By  F.  C.  Burnand.  Price  in  cloth, 
$1.00;  paper  covers,  75  cents. 

2. 

DOCTOR  JACOB.  A  Novel.  By  Miss  M.  Betham  Edwards. 
Price  in  cloth,  $1.00;  paper  covers,  75  cents. 

3. 

PLANCHETTE;  or,  The  Despau-  of  Science.  Being  a  full 
account  of  Modem  Spiritualism.  Price  in  cloth,  $1.25;  paper 
covers,  $1.00. 

4. 

EDELWEISS.     A    Story.     By  Berthold    Auerbach.      Price 

in  cloth,  $1.00;  paper  covers,  75  cents. 

6. 

REALITIES    OF    IRISH    LIl^E.     By  W.  Steuart   French. 

Price  in  cloth,  $1.00;  paper  covers,  75  cents. 

6. 

POEMS  OF  RURAL  LIFE.  By  William  Barnes.  With 
12  superb  illustrations.    Price  in  cloth,  $1  25. 

7. 

GERMAN  TALES.  By  Berthold  Auerbach.  Price  in  cloth, 
$1.00. 

8. 

A  VISIT  TO  MY  DISCONTENTED  COUSIN.  A  Novelette. 
Price  in  cloth,  $1.00. 

Other  volumes  will  follow  the  above  at  convenient  intervals. 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  Publishers,  Boston. 
•    14 


DATE  DUE 


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